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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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FUEL CHALLENGE Efficiency, not speed, is goal of this BIR contest Staff Writer Brainerd International Raceway's track was busy Monday and Tuesday, but not with the usual dragsters.
Students from 52 schools around Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Winnipeg, Manitoba, participated in the Minnesota Technology Education Association's Supermileage Challenge. It's the 20th year for the event in which students make cars in their industrial technology classes and compete for best fuel economy.
This year's most fuel-efficient car, with 866.66 miles per gallon, ran in the modified class and was from Alden Conger High School. The all-time record is 1,322 miles per gallon.
Brainerd High School's car placed fifth in the stock class with 341.81 miles per gallon. Staples-Motley High School's best run was 318.27 miles per gallon and Pine River-Backus High School's best was 189.08.
PR-B High School had three cars in the competition. Students from the school's manufacturing class spent all semester working on the vehicles. Even though their vehicles didn't finish well in the competition, team members looked on the bright side.
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Members of the Pine River-Backus High School Supermileage Challenge team included Joshua Schermann (left), Spencer Hedlund, Glen Abbott, Andy Knutson, Dustin Wiese, Cody Olson and Michael Petersen (seated). The team raced three cars in the fuel-efficiency competition.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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"There were a lot of broken down cars (on the track)," said Andy Knutson, a PR-B High School sophomore. "Ours held up better than a lot of them."
PR-B High School students split into three groups and designed each of the cars differently. All competing cars, however, had a single cylinder, four-stroke engine. Fuel, except in the E-85 class, was 90 percent unleaded gasoline, 10 percent ethanol.
Cars were given a tear-drop shaped fuel tank, carefully filled, weighed and installed before the performance run. After completing two laps around BIR's three-mile track, the tanks were removed and weighed by competition judges. The miles-per-gallon rating was figured by dividing the distance by the amount of fuel used.
Michael Petersen, PR-B 10th-grader, drove the car when it got its best rating. His secret? He shut off the engine and coasted with the wind and used the car's hood as a sail before restarting the engine.
Most of the students on the PR-B team hope to become mechanics or enter a related field after graduating. They enjoyed designing and working on the fuel-efficient cars and competing in the Supermileage Challenge.
"It's better than sitting in English or something," said Glen Abbott, PR-B 11th-grader.
Many Americans are developing a taste for fuel-efficient vehicles now that gasoline prices are hitting record-setting prices. The average price for a gallon of gas Tuesday in Minnesota was $3.694, according to MinnesotaGasPrices.com.
HEIDI LAKE may be reached at heidi.lake@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5879.
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