This press release is copyrighted by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE). Its use is granted only to journalists and news media. Embargo date: 26 January 2002, 5:00 p.m. ET.
The World Solar Challenge, a 3,010-km race across Australia, is one of the world's great technology spectacles. It is a true global competition, where the top finishers from dozens of national and regional long-distance solar races compete every two years for international bragging rights. The competing vehicles, which look like oversized cockroaches on wheels, carry only the driver and push the state of the art in many important areas, such as solar cells, computer controls, and lightweight materials.
What makes the WSC special and colorful is the fact that unlike almost all other races of this duration it is not a "staged" or "time-trial" race like, for example, the Tour de France. Wherever a race car is when the sun goes down, that's where the team sets up camp for the night. The next morning, it resumes the race from that point.
IEEE Spectrum Senior Editor Glenn Zorpette rode along with the team from the University of Michigan, one of the top contenders, which had won the American Solar Challenge last July. He provides a detailed account of an unusually exciting and eventful race, in which new records were set.
Contact: Glenn Zorpette, 212 419 7980, [email protected].For a faxed copy of the complete article ("Sun Kings Cross the Outback" by Glenn Zorpette, Senior Editor, IEEE Spectrum, February 2002, pp. 40-46) or to arrange an interview, contact: Nancy T. Hantman, 212 419 7561, [email protected].
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