Students, teachers beaming over NFA's solar-car victory

Students, teachers beaming over NFA's solar-car victory

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120405/NEWS/204050331

CITY OF NEWBURGH — Call them Champion of the Americas.

The Newburgh Free Academy Solar Racing Team drove off with that title in the solar prototype division in the weekend's Shell EcoMarathon in Houston.

One of two solar cars from NFA beat all other teams from around the U.S. and internationally — from Alberta, Canada, to Brazil. The competition included colleges as well as high schools. The winning prize: $2,000. NFA's other solar car took "a very close third place," according to Chris Eachus, a physics teacher and one of the team's advisers.

In this race, the standard is not who crosses the finish line first, but rather who goes the farthest using the least amount of energy. Eachus said they've been steering the team more toward that type of competition in recent years.

"That (car) absolutely wiped away the competition," he said, pointing to the first-place finisher. It still had power to spare in its solar panels when the race was done — not an easy feat, considering the sun didn't really come out from behind the clouds until the final day of the three-day contest.