The toughest job on this race today must be that of the race officials, because solar cars are scattered from west of Regina to who knows HOW far back toward Winnipeg. One frustrated organizer said at Regina that they really needed some COMPETITION!

Today's start from Winnipeg was, of course, under cloudy conditions and only about half the field actually drove from Red River's campus start line. Solar Miner VI has been running for days on low batteries and the lack of sunny weather has denied the Miners the chance to refuel en route. To make matters worse a battery module failed last night, dropping the pack's capacity about 8%.

S&T made the decision this morning, as did many other teams, to trailer their car from Winnipeg to the Brandon check point, where they FINALLY caught up with open skies. They figured the trailer penalties were better than driving the Trans-Canada Highway at 15mph, and we're sure our Canadian hosts would agree.

At Brandon the Miners got about two solid hours of charge time, enough to feel confident enough about the available sunlight to hit the road, and under partly cloudy skies they struck out behind Michigan and Calgary.
From that point we didn't hear a thing on the team's radio, and in this race no news is scary 'cause you never know which car will emerge from the distant prairie horizon. Much to our delight it turned out that Solar Miner VI, under the care of Nathan Steckel, sailed about 200 miles from Brandon to very close to Regina with just two quick stops to fix loose wires. In terms of physical placement S&T ended up third in line at evening time. Where a team ends up each night has virtually no bearing on the official standings, but we can tell you it sure feels better to have more cars behind you than ahead of you.

Meanwhile the real drama unfolded among the teams that drove from Winnipeg. Michigan, Waterloo, Principia, Red River, Bochum, valiant Oregon State and maybe one or two more challenged the clouds, probably because there was a tiny glimpse of blue sky way off to the west. Michigan, of course, took off, with Bochum and Waterloo close behind. A dozen or so miles down the road Principia roared past
Waterloo as if they were standing still, and then disappeared. Unfortunately Principia turned up later on the side of the road, peering into their battery box with great concern.

At that point News Chopper 1870 headed up the road to find the Miners charging at Brandon, and at day's end eventually found them charging under COMPLETELY clear skies! WHAT A RUSH!!