Solar Miner VI and its crew passed scrutineering this afternoon, only the 4th out of 20 teams to do so, but the track closed before the Miners could get a few track laps in tonight. At the end of the official day Red River College from Manitoba, Canada invited all teams to a cook-out, and the racers responded like a swarm of locusts offered a ripe wheat field.
On a point of envy, Red River has a culinary school, so they brought a real live CHEF along to cook for them. Cool, eh?
Red River, which qualified 3rd, has been on the track for much of the afternoon with a quiet little car named "Raycer". They are relatively new to solar racing, with the '05 race as their baptism of fire. RR is one of at least two teams whose solar racing heritage can be traced back to Rolla. About five years ago they bought one of our early Solar Miner cars, hauled it to the northern prairie, and used it as a training vehicle while they built their own masterpiece. The tell us Solar Miner 1 is now used by a local high school to generate interest in the younger kids, which is a great idea because a solar car "farm team" will help keep their program dynamic. Looks like they learned their lessons well, don't you think?
Another Miner descendant is Ra VII from Principia College in nearby Elsa, Illinois. S&T and Principia have a long-shared relationship based on solar cars, and we think the Miners are the only team in solar racing that is listed as a sponsor by another team. Several times a year the two squads get together and share ideas and work out water-jet programs. S&T (formerly UMR) is actually listed on RA VII's trailer as a sponsor!
While Principia doesn't even have an engineering school, their hard work and dedication has kept them right at the heels of the "Big M' schools (Missouri-Rolla, Minnesota, MIT, and, oh yeah, Michigan...........
This could well be the year the claw their way into the winner's circle.
