Sleek, rectangular vehicles are soaking up California rays in preparation for the last leg of the 2001 American Solar Challenge. Thirty college and university cars are competing in the twenty-three-hundred mile cross country race which began July fifteenth in Chicago and wraps up tomorrow in Claremont, California. Currently, University of Michigan team is picked to win with an hour and twenty minute lead over rival school University of Missouri, Rolla. The University of Minnesota holds twelfth place, the U team's best ranking in eight years. We caught up with Mechanical Engineering student Cedar Vandergon (Vandergone) who drove the University's car "Borealis" into Barstow on Sunday, the last checkpoint before the finish line. He says the race has been quite an adventure: