An electric car endurance contest will be held at the University of Northern Iowa today (Saturday), bringing in student racers from across Iowa and across the nation. Pat Higby is an energy educator at U-N-I’s Center for Energy and Environmental Education — and she’s organizing the event.She says the 6th annual Iowa Electrothon is primarily for high schoolers but several college teams are also taking part. The one-person cars are designed and hand-built by each team. They run on two automobile batteries. Each team runs on the track for one hour and whoever has the most laps wins. Higby says this year’s race has a true national feel. Several Iowa high school teams will be competing against others from Nebraska, Wisconsin and Florida. Higby says electricity will play an increasingly prominent role in the future of transportation.Iowa teams are from Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids (2), Forest City, Manson-Northwest Webster, North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City, Ogden, Perry, Pomeroy-Palmer, Real World Education in Waverly, Sioux Central, St. Ansgar and Waukee. Heats will be run at 12:30 and 2:30 PM Saturday at U-N-I’s “B” parking lot across University Avenue from the Gallagher-Bludedorn auditorium.
