The ISU Solar car team PrISUm is almost half-way through the North American Solar Challenge 2005, the world’s longest solar car race.

Fusion, the student-built solar car, traveled about 250 miles from Broken Arrow, Okla. to Holton, Kan. on Tuesday as cloudy skies forced the team to stop on the side of the road and point the car toward the sun to recharge the battery, according to the ISU Web site.

“We’ve been doing really well, the car’s been running well,” said Ryan Pfeiffer on Wednesday night, senior in mechanical engineering and director of systems integration for the team. “We’ve had lots of sunshine today.”

The team hoped to reach Sioux Falls, S.D. on Wednesday and Pfeiffer said the weather was cooperating with them more than it was Tuesday.

“We had bad weather, there was no sunlight,” said Ryan Emerson, senior in computer engineering and the team’s director of electrical systems. “Everyone had to slow down.”

Team members woke up early Wednesday and continued charging the car’s battery at 6 a.m. to prepare for the race and to counteract Tuesday’s weather.

Twenty university teams started the 2,500 mile race from Austin, Texas to Calgary, Alberta, Canada on Sunday and thirteen cars made it through the checkpoint in Topeka, Kan. Tuesday, according to the Web site.

“We don’t know our rank, we do kind of know who is ahead of us and behind us on the road,” Emerson said.

The North American Solar Challenge is scheduled to last 10 days and is approximately 2,500 miles long.