Bowling Green State University’s Electric Falcon race car has ended the 2003 “Formula Lightning” season by winning the EMCWA Formula Lightning Electric Car Championship at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.

The Electric Falcon, which had the pole position after driver Larry Crosser posted the fastest lap in the Oct.4 qualifying heat, defeated runner-up Ohio University in the 12-lap, 27.3-mile race. A car from Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis led the BGSU car after the first lap but finished third, ahead of fourth-place West Virginia University.

Crosser, who has driven the Electric Falcon for nine years, recorded an average lap speed of just under 74 miles per hour. The car went into the pits for fresh batteries at the end of the fourth lap but regained the lead in lap five and held it to take the checkered flag.

“The team looked good and performed well both on and off the track,” said Dr. Anthony Palumbo, faculty adviser to the Electric Falcon MotorSports team and chief of operations of BGSU’s Electric Vehicle Institute. The pit crew “pulled off two great pit stops to insure that Larry Crosser was in and out, adding only 32 seconds to the lap time,” he said.

This academic sport truly demonstrates technology problem-solving at the highest level,” added Dr. Ernest Savage, dean of the BGSU College of Technology.

Echoing Palumbo, he praised the team effort and Crosser’s driving skills, as well as “super energy management and applied new technology developed by our students and faculty.”

The event, which took place on Oct. 5, was sponsored by the Electrical Manufacturing & Coil Winding Association (EMCWA) and sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America.

Megawatt Motorworks congratulates BGSU in their efforts! We hope to bring our readers more Formula Electric stories in the months ahead.