DECATUR - As a student majoring in music business, Alexander Hackel's long-range goal is to construct guitars.

In the meantime, the Illinois State University junior from Decatur is on the cutting edge of alternative energy: He's a solar car builder.

Last winter, his girlfriend noticed a poster for the Solar Car Challenge team. Intrigued, Hackel attended a meeting and became involved. It turned out that he became the head of the Illinois State mechanical team of a dozen people and two faculty advisers.

Together, they built a design car with the aim of entering the North American Solar Challenge cross-country time/distance event, starting in Plano, Texas, and ending in Calgary, Alberta, a distance of 2,400 miles.

The solar car, measuring 6 by 16 feet, has an electric motor that runs off solar-powered batteries.

"We had 492 solar cells," Hackel said. "The sun's rays are the fuel."

Unfortunately, Hackel's contraption failed to reach the starting line in July.

"We didn't pass the dynamics test because we threw a magnet," Hackel said.

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Undaunted, Hackel is helping design a car for the next event in 2010. "We're getting a new motor for free from the factory in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area," he said.

The University of Michigan was the winner this time among 15 entries in 51 hours-plus, a couple of hours faster than when it won the event in 2005.

How fast do the solar cars travel? "Up to 70 mph," Hackel said. The 2005 average speed of the Michigan car was 46.2 mph. But don't look for one of the chariots of fire on the highway anytime soon. "Too expensive," Hackel said.

One of the Hackel triplets, he has always been a builder, dating from Soap Box Derby days. He built three Vinegar Hill Soap Box Derby entries for Mount Pulaski races, the first featuring a seat made from an old kitchen chair.

"Each of his creations had a more sophisticated design, using better materials and achieving better results," his mother, Barbara Hackel, said. "He built each of the cars entirely without help, then quietly dismantled the cars and retired from the Soap Box Derby at 14."

At St. Teresa High School, he played baseball, then decided to try cross country and track to satisfy his racing urge. He started a boys team and continued to run through his senior year.

"From Soap Box Derby to solar car builder, his positive attitude - 'I can do that' - and ingenious ideas have prodded him," Barbara Hackel said. "Thanks to the men running the Vinegar Hill races, Alexander was instilled with appreciation for his abilities and ideas, support from his elders and old-fashioned encouragement. He's a winner for his hard work and determination."

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