Keith Severson drove UND's hydrogen-powered car, Subzero IV H2, across the finish line Wednesday in Calgary.

It marked the end of a 2,600-mile journey of challenges, setbacks and recovery for the UND team in the North American Solar Challenge race through the United States and Canada.

Severson said an "enormous welcoming party" of race supporter cheered as the race cars passed the checkered flag.

"It feels great," Severson said. "We're just sitting here all smiles with thousands of people walking around."

UND crossed the finish line about 2:45 p.m. Central time Wednesday.

Starts and stops

UND got off to a fast start at the beginning of the race July 17 in Austin, Texas, only to be bogged down by mechanical setbacks most of the remaining route. The team finally got the bugs worked out in the penultimate leg of the race, only about 400 miles from Calgary.

Severson said that the experimental nature of the hydrogen-powered vehicle made the challenges inevitable. Overheating in the all-important fuel cell, which powers the vehicle, plagued the car for most of the race.

"That's what we expected; we had a lot of problems ... but we got most of the bugs worked out and it's been going great ever since," Severson said.

He said the car survived internal temperatures of 130 degrees during the final leg of the race.

Throughout the race, when the UND car wasn't being hauled by trailer, it averaged between 40 and 45 mph, and went as fast as 60 mph downhill.

UND's hydrogen car competed in the race as an exhibit against a field made up of about 20 solar-powered vehicles. A number of cars dropped out or were disqualified for breaking race rules.

No times or rankings were kept for UND because of its demonstration status. Officials are hoping to develop a hydrogen-fuel-cell class for the race based on what they've learned from UND's car.

Michigan vs. Minnesota

The "Momentum" from the University of Michigan won the event, narrowly beating the University of Minnesota.

"We knew going into this we had the best car in the world and we proved it here. We had some very tough teams against us but we stuck with our strategy," said driver Joe Belter, 19, as Michigan supporters continued to yell "Go Blue!" in the background.

But Belter, a mechanical engineering student, says a commercial solar car is a long way away.

"I see solar cars meshing with some kind of hybrid car in the future," he said. "I don't believe that within the next 20 years there will be a pure solar car."

The University of Minnesota led for 990 miles of the race, but its driver wasn't disappointed at the effort.

"We're totally the underdogs on this team. We had no more than $150,000 in cash while Michigan spent $1.8 million to build their car," said driver John Wanner.

He said a lot of elbow grease went into their entry.

"We have brilliant engineers who built the entire thing by hand and spent a combined total of 45,000 man-hours to build and design this car," he said.

Not last

The race took the competitors through Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota and North Dakota along with Brandon, Winnipeg, Regina and Medicine Hat, Alta., before finishing up in Calgary.

Anna Vosgerau, a UND team member, was amazed at the response the teams got as they arrived in Calgary on Wednesday.

"There's so many people; it's just been great - people have been cheering us on," she said.

Vosgerau wasn't sure what place the team came in on the last leg, but it definitely wasn't last.

"No, there's a couple of teams still out there," she said, shortly after the race.

Now that the race is over, UND still has one piece of business that needs tending to. A North Dakota state fleet van, which the team was using to tail the race car, broke down and still is sitting outside of Tulsa, Okla.

"We have a couple of team members that have to go down there and get it, but we don't know who it will be yet," Vosgerau said.