After an emotional year of setbacks, ISU’s solar car team successfully crossed the finish line of Sunrayce ’97 Saturday.

Though results are still unofficial, Team PrISUm ended the race in the overall 27th position out of 36 cars.

On Saturday the team finished the race in the 26th spot at Colorado Springs with a time of 2 hours and 30 minutes for an average speed of 31 mph. But overall positions are determined after each day’s results are totaled.

On Friday, Team PrISUm took advantage of the sun and covered the 140 miles from St. Francis, Kan., to Limon, Colo., in about 6 hours and 15 minutes with an average speed of 22 mph.

The team needed the sun on Friday to compensate for low battery power.

“We planned to take the day slow and take advantage of the sunlight. We needed to run the car on pure solar energy,”said Beth Hunter, Team PrISUm director.

Team member Allen Ihlefeld also said running the car on solar energy would help get them across the finish line on Saturday.

The man behind the wheel at the finish line Saturday was Andy Earhart. Earhart was expected to be one of the main drivers for Team PrISUm, but he was injured in the April 29 accident near Topeka, Kan, when the team was returning from Mesa, Ariz. There the team failed an initial attempt to qualify for Sunrayce ’97.

“It was pretty emotional for all of us and for Andy, too, when he drove the car across the finish line. He was supposed to be our main driver. We thought it would be nice to have him finish the race,” Hunter said.

Bibek “Bob” Sahu and Olivia Truckenmiller drove ExCytor — the team’s solar car — throughout most of the race. Sahu was in the driver’s seat up until the point Earhart took over.

The first solar-car team to cross the finish line in Colorado Springs was Stanford University/UC Berkeley. Stanford University/UC Berkeley finished third overall.

The University of Waterloo finished Saturday in second place and was followed by the University of Minnesota.

California State University Los Angeles was leading in Saturday’s leg of the race and is the unofficial winner. MIT holds second place overall.

Earlier Saturday, Team PrISUm was awarded with the EDS Daily Award for “smiling and having fun, no matter what happened during the race.”

In 1995, Team PrISUm finished in 15th place.

Today, a “welcome home reception” will be held for Team PrISUm at 10:00 am in the solar car garage of Old Sweeney Hall. The reception is open to the public, and refreshments will be served.