Cannonball Running

By Jessica Johns Pool

Take a handful of Owls, one 1989 Alfa Romeo, a dash of ingenuity and a lot of endurance. Mix thoroughly and spread across 5,000 miles of road. That’s the Rice recipe for the Cannonball One Lap of America race.

Cannonball One, instituted in 1984, is the legal successor to the fabled Cannonball Run, an illegal coast-to-coast road race of the 1970s made famous by the 1980 movie of the same name. Rice student members of the Rice chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers have participated in the new version of the event since 2005. The goal of the club is to give students practical experience in engineering automobiles for optimal performance and creating innovative automotive technologies.

Now, rather than race across the country over public highways, Cannonball One participants drive an equivalent distance on 18 different racetracks in 11 states during eight days in May. Rankings are based on the amount of time drivers take to complete the given distance. The event is foremost one of endurance and vehicle preparation. There are no support crews, each team is allowed only one set of street tires and competitors drive nearly 24 hours a day.

The Rice team, known as the Racing Owls, included David Carr ’07, Damen Hattori, Kevin Hirshberg, Nikolay Kostov, Lucas Marr and Will Pryor. The students invested more than 2,000 hours in the car during the 2006–07 school year. “This was our opportunity to enjoy our work and see if, and how, it improved the race car,” Hattori said. “Before we even made it back to Houston, we were talking about how we could make the car better for next year.”

The hard work paid off: The team finished 54th out of 87 total competitors, up from 85th out of 95 entries in 2005. Country Music Television was so taken with the Racing Owls that it featured the team in its coverage of the race.

Andrew Barron, the Charles W. Duncan Jr.–Welch Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science, who teaches the automotive engineering course for the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, began Rice’s One Lap tradition as an exercise for students to gain hands-on experience in working on a real race car. His many contributions include finding donated cars, providing car insurance, letting club members work in his private garage and working on the cars himself.

“His industry contacts and consistent high level of involvement have been some of the key reasons for the club’s success,” Hattori said. “Without him, we wouldn’t even be near the level we’re at now.”

The Racing Owls are looking for more sponsors to support the club’s efforts. Learn more about them at the Rice Society of Automotive Engineers Web site at www.ruf.rice.edu/~rsae/.