Wisconsin corn growers helped a team of students from Durand High School drive 572 miles per gallon with 100% ethanol fuel at this year's Shell Eco-marathon Americas competition.

A donation by the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board help the students travel to Houston, April 15-17 for the Shell-sponsored national fuel efficiency race. The annual event challenges high school and college student teams from around the world to design, build and test energy efficient vehicles.

This is the second time the Durand Team has made the trip with sponsorship from the Wisconsin Corn Checkoff.

This is the second time the Durand Team has made the trip with sponsorship from the Wisconsin Corn Checkoff. The Durand Motorsports team competing in this year's marathon include: Tyler Sabelko, driver and team manager; Travis Gates, reserve driver; Team Members Nick Bruner, Joe Leonhard, Austin Hoover, Dylan Panetti and Faculty Advisor Bill Rieger.

"We are pleased and proud to we receive third place in the ethanol division," relates Rieger. "We also placed 20th out of almost 70 cars overall and achieved way over our goal of 500 mpg on ethanol, getting 572 miles per gallon!"

The Durand Motorsports team won two prestigious awards at this year's competition: The Eco Design Award and a Safety Award. The safety award takes into account all of the safety of the crew and also the safety integrated into the car, including safety belts, eye protection, work area, and many other items of safety. The Eco Design award includes different aspects integrated into the car to make it sustainable in design, materials used, methods used, and fuel consumed.

The Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board provides funding for corn marketing initiatives through the state corn checkoff program, which collects one-half cent for every bushel of Wisconsin corn sold. The primary objective of Wisconsin's corn marketing order, which has been in place for more than 26 years, is to maintain and expand sales of Wisconsin corn.

For more information on Wisconsin's corn checkoff or the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board contact Bob Oleson, executive director of Wisconsin Corn Programs at [email protected] or by phone at 262-495-2232 or go to the web site at www.wicornpro.org.