Team PrISUm, Iowa State’s solar car racing team, was in 29th place as of Wednesday night, dropping one spot from Tuesday’s position.

Team PrISUm covered only 120 miles of the 152-mile leg of Sunrayce ’97 on Tuesday.

The team made it as far as St. Mary’s, Kan., before having to stop to replace the car’s motor controller.

“A capacitor in the motor controller became loose and shut down the controller,” said Beth Hunter, Team PrISUm director.

“We had to stop to put in another motor controller. We can’t operate the car without the motor controller.”

The motor controller took over two hours to replace and left Team PrISUm with no other alternative but to finish the day’s race without the car’s own solar power, Hunter said.

Team PrISUm later trailered the car into Manhattan, Kan., where members spent the night.

George Washington University won Tuesday’s leg of Sunrayce ’97. They finished the race in four hours, two minutes and 57 seconds at an average speed of 37.5 mph. George Washington University holds the eighth overall spot in Sunrayce ’97.

On Tuesday, Massachusetts Institute of Technology was bumped out of the overall No. 1 spot by California State University, Los Angles. California State finished the race in fifth place at an average speed of 34.7 mph.

The University of Waterloo is holding onto second place overall and finished behind George Washington University at Tuesday’s race. They sped into second place with an average speed of 35.4 mph.

In the third overall spot is Stanford University/UC-Berkeley. They finished the race on Tuesday in fourth with an average speed of 34.8 mph.

On Wednesday, Team PrISUm got back on the road and drove the team’s car, ExCytor, a distance of 150 miles from Manhattan to Smith Center, Kan.

The race finishes Saturday in Colorado Springs.