[Teralogos News] Divad Blasts to the Finish in Mars-Earth Plasma Sail Race

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Divad Blasts to the Finish in Mars-Earth Plasma Sail Race

ISLANDIA/Teralogos	Mar 12, 2101     
     
Julia Divad won the 4th Annual Solar Cup on Wednesday, narrowly beating last years winner, Kei Noguchi, with a record time of three months, five days, and six minutes. Her racer, Raptor of Dawn, is the first to have been designed and assembled in the Islandia Lagrange 4 colony.     
     
"I really think I owe the win to my friends and family who kept me motivated over the trip," said Divad. "I've raced by inhabiting cybershells, but the Solar Cup is significantly harder. They make an effort to keep the pilots as close to a baseline human as possible - three months in a stinky meat shell without any pain overrides makes me appreciate my other bodies a lot more. I'm just glad I lucked out towards the end, it was a tight race all the way back from the Mars gravity slingshot."     
     
Divad had been in second place until an electrical fire in Noguchi's crew compartment forced him and his racer Eye of Ra to drop out. The accident was one of several that have given the Solar Cup a reputation for dangerously lax safety regulations and restrictive race rules that prevent automation of piloting and repairs.     
     
"We're all very disappointed by the accident but we'll be back next year to get the Cup," Team Noguchi chief engineer Byron McMahon told reporters, speaking from the team's base at Bifrost Station, Earth orbit. 
    
In third place was Sun Yue's Feng Huang, one of five Mars-built vessels in this year's race.    
     
- filed by Kenneth Peters