University of Idaho Wins Gage Fuel Economy Award at Fourth Annual SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge

HOUGHTON, Mich., March 22 -- The University of Idaho's entry in the fourth annual SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge has received an award for best overall fuel economy in the four-day competition held here March 19-22.

The Gage Products "Best Fuel Economy" award was presented to the university's 14-member team by Donald Dixon, president of Gage Products Company at an honors banquet in Houghton on Saturday evening. The University of Idaho is located in Moscow, Idaho.

Colorado State University (Fort Collins) took second place in the fuel economy event, followed by the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada); the University of Wyoming (Laramie), and Michigan Technological University (Houghton).

The winning entry was equipped with a BMW motorcycle engine which achieved a fuel-economy average of 20 miles per gallon during a 60-mile endurance run.

Members of the University of Idaho team included Nathan Bradbury, Brad Devorak, Chris Dux, Mike Fernald, Andrew Findlay, Forrest French, Todd Freeman (co-leader), Jason Harwood, Stephen Lyda, Jon Pentzer, Jason Stevens, Nate Wasankari, Scott Wernhoff, Dana Wenstrom (co-leader) and Dr. Karen Den Braven (faculty advisor).

Held in Michigan for the first time, the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge was hosted by Michigan Technological University, its mechanical engineering department and the school's Keweenaw Research Center. Twelve university teams from the U.S. and Canada registered for the competition, which is designed to encourage the development of environmentally friendly snowmobiles.

"Gage is especially pleased to have played a role in a competition that not only encourages the development of outstanding student engineers, but works to improve the environment as well," Mr. Dixon said.

A specialist in the production of test fuels for the automotive industry, Gage has provided its customers with more than 1,000 different test-fuel blends over the past five years. The company's custom-fuel customers include Bosch, Visteon, TI Automotive, Inergy Automotive Systems, Eaton Corporation, Detroit Testing Services Group and Stant Manufacturing.

Headquartered in Ferndale, MI, Gage has facilities in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil and Mexico. A leader in the field of sustainable manufacturing and solvent remanufacturing programs, its paint-system solvent-recovery processes are used in a majority of North America's automotive assembly plants and have attracted the attention of European and Asia-Pacific manufacturers as well.

Additional information about Gage is available on the Internet at www.gageproducts.com. Further details about the 2003 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge may be found at www.mtu.edu.