HANCOCK - Although the weather was a bit warmer than expected, students from universities around the country and Canada still gathered Tuesday with the snowmobiles they had spent countless hours working on.
Eleven internal combustion and five electric snowmobiles engineered by the students were at Michigan Technological University's Keweenaw Research Center Tuesday for the opening ceremony of the Society of Automotive Engineers Clean Snowmobile Challenge. The overall goal of the competition, which ends Saturday, is to re-engineer stock snowmobiles to reduce emissions and noise while maintaining or boosting performance. New this year is the use of a secret blend of flex-fuel, which is gasoline that could range from 10 percent ethanol to 85 percent ethanol.
Vice president of Michigan Tech's team, Dan Rahman, used words like powerful and economical to describe his team's effort, which he estimated took more than 1,500 hours.
"We're turbo charged, clean, quiet, a really nice ride," he said.
He said although the competition will be fierce, his team should improve on its fourth-place finish from last year.
"We should be able to podium if we can finish all events," he said. "We've been riding the sled around for a month."
Rahman was a bit disappointed with the weather as the route the snowmobiles traveled Tuesday was adjusted. Instead of traveling from the KRC to Twin Lakes and on to Baraga, the teams were to load into their trailers at Twin Lakes and drive to Baraga for lunch at the casino.
"I like the warm weather, but it could have come a week later," he said. "It would have been cool to ride to Baraga."
After all the sleds were lined up, officials from the area greated the teams. Houghton County Sheriff Brian McLean issued a warm, stern welcome.
"Have a lot of fun, not too much fun," he joked. "Remember, we do run a bed and breakfast."
Keweenaw Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dallas Bond connected the student's work with the local economy.
"Snowmobiling's big business here," he said. "I look forward to seeing some of your designs running the trails."
After that, the internal combustion snowmobiles fired up and rolled down a track of snow hauled in to cover the muddy parking area to the KRC research track. That is, all but three of the sleds. Left behind were the teams Northern Illinois University, the University of Waterloo and Kettering University.
The team from NIU stood around their pink-detailed sled trying to figure out what was wrong with it.
"It doesn't start, not sure why," said team president Ben Nichols. "The only thing I can think of is we came to the Eastern time zone."
His teammate Mike Guinta was cheerful despite the letdown.
"We knew it was coming," he said.
The team said they would work on the sled from 5 p.m. to midnight and make up the endurance run miles they missed out on -a requirement for continuing in the competition.
At the end of the day, five teams completed the endurance run: the University of Idaho, Clarkson University, Michigan Tech, the University of Maine and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The machines will be on display for the public at the Copper Country Mall tonight from 6 to 8 p.m.
Saturday, the public is welcome to the Polaris Acceleration and Handling event set for 10 and 11 a.m. at the Keweenaw Research Center test course, near the Houghton County Memorial Airport. Warm clothing is recommended. Attendees will see the five battery-powered snowmobiles competing in the zero emissions division.
The challenge concludes Saturday with an awards banquet at 6:30 p.m. in Tech's Memorial Union Ballroom. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased by contacting Sue Kerttu at 487-2750.
Layla Aslani can be reached at laslani@mininggazette.com.
