University of Michigan Wins Solar Car Rayce

The University of Michigan won it’s fifth national championship in solar car racing.  Almost 20 years ago I cut my entrepreneurial teeth on this project at Michigan (winning our 2nd championship).  The rayce is similar to the Tour de France in that it is divided into several stages over 10 days and about 2400 miles from Austin, TX to Calgary, AB.  Michigan opened a commanding 9 hour lead over the second place finisher, which I believe is the largest margin of victory in the history of the event.

These cars take tens of thousands of volunteer hours to design, build and test plus millions of dollars (solicited from sponsors) and a lot of blood, sweat and tears over several years.  Congrats to the entire field, especially Michigan.

There are a lot of lessons to learn from this team/event.  I’ll write more on that later.  In the meantime, you can learn more about the team and the North American Solar Challenge from their websites.