And at noon on the first day of the American Solar Challenge 2016 road race, the leaders are, in order:
- 2 – Michigan
– 233 km - 51 – Dunwoody (American S.E.R.) – 200 km
- 32 – Principia – 193 km
- 828 – Appalachian State (Sunergy) – 181 km
- 35 – Minnesota – 178 km
The map above shows car positions as at the time indicated (compensated for GPS lag by extrapolating positions using the speeds given in the GPS feed). Sadly, teams 77 (Toronto) and 6 (Berkeley) had problems at the starting line, and were a little late in heading out. The map and table below show (uncompensated) end-of-day positions. Michigan is in the lead in Brownstown, IN, while Kentucky unfortunately had to withdraw.
| 2 | Michigan | 578 km (359 miles) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | Dunwoody (American S.E.R.) | 494 km (307 miles) | |
| 32 | Principia | 466 km (289 miles) | |
| 828 | Appalachian State (Sunergy) | 460 km (286 miles) | |
| 55 | Poly Montreal | 440 km (273 miles) | |
| 35 | Minnesota | 417 km (259 miles) | |
| 6 | Berkeley (CalSol) | 414 km (257 miles) | |
| 17 | Illinois State | 412 km (256 miles) | |
| 77 | Toronto (Blue Sky) | 410 km (255 miles) | |
| 9 | Iowa State (PrISUm) | 409 km (254 miles) | |
| 92 | ETS Quebec | 389 km (241 miles) | |
| 42 | Missouri S&T | 387 km (241 miles) | |
| 3 | Kentucky | Withdrawn | |
Here is App State (828) checking in at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, OH:
The National Park Service has a highlight video here. Minnesota, the sole Cruiser in the race, has some beautifully illustrated blog posts on the pre-race exhibition and on the first day. Aaron Frantz recorded some unofficial arrival times at Dayton, while Toronto explain what went wrong at the start. Based on the unofficial times into Dayton, here are my speed estimates, with a comparison to the 2015 World Solar Challenge (grey bars):
The sole Cruiser is shown here in green. In honour of the US National Parks, the colour palette of this chart is from this picture of Wind Cave National Park.
Scientific Gems 
