Posted on July 15: McMaster’s Fireball II team ablaze to try again

Despite a disappointing showing at the American Solar Challenge in the United States, McMaster's solar race car, Fireball II — like the Phoenix — will rise from the ashes.

Project leader Claire Braden, who has been part of the McMaster's solar car project for five years, promised yesterday the experimental solar car will race again, perhaps as early as next summer.

“Fireball will be back, all the team members are enthusiastic to start again.”

Braden and the other eight Fireball team members are back in Hamilton this week after failing to qualify for the 3,700-kilometre Chicago to California race which started Sunday.

After suffering from cloudy skies, faulty brakes and flat tires, the coup de grbce for the McMaster entry came when a wheel fell off during the qualification run. When time ran out, Fireball was still 32 kilometres short. Among the other nine teams that missed the cut were the University of Michigan –the 2001 winner — The University of Western Ontario, Yale University and Northwestern University, the host university for the qualifying event.

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