One race.
A year to get ready for it.
Solar racing doesn't have a calendar full of weekends. There is one event that matters, it happens in the summer, and everything between now and then is preparation for it.
Formula Sun Grand Prix
Three days on a closed road course, eight hours of green flag each day. Whoever completes the most laps wins — but the real purpose is qualification. A car that cannot survive twenty-four hours of track time does not get to attempt the cross-country event.
- Format
- 3 days · 24 hours on track
- Scored on
- Total laps completed
- Gate to
- American Solar Challenge
American Solar Challenge
Eight days, four stages and roughly 1,550 miles of public highway between two cities, with timed checkpoints and overnight stage stops along the way. Cars run on whatever the sun gives them that day. Position is decided by distance covered, not by lap time.
- Distance
- ~1,550 miles
- Field
- 40+ teams, four countries
- Our class
- SOV — single driver
Minneapolis to Amarillo
Eight days on the road
Build nights, test days and travel dates land on the team calendar as they're confirmed.
Add to Google CalendarMinneapolis, MN → Edwardsville, IL
Start line · checkpoints at La Crosse & Normal
Edwardsville, IL → Carthage, MO
Checkpoint at Rolla · Great River Road onto Route 66
Carthage, MO → Elk City, OK
Checkpoint at Tulsa · longest exposure to plains crosswind
Elk City, OK → Amarillo, TX
Finish line at Arts in the Sunset
Stage stops are overnight holds where the whole field parks together; checkpoints are 30-minute mandatory stops. Optional loops at checkpoints let teams bank extra miles if they have the charge for it.
The road to the start line
Most of a solar car season happens in a workshop and a spreadsheet. These are the gates every team has to clear before anyone is allowed to race.
Preliminary design
Mechanical and electrical concepts submitted for review, including how the driver cell protects the driver in a rollover.
Design reports
Full documentation across mechanical, electrical and solar collector, with structural calculations signed off by a reviewer outside the team.
Build review
Evidence that the car taking shape in the shop is the car that was approved on paper.
Scrutineering
Seven inspection stations plus the dynamic tests. Every one has to go green before the car turns a competitive lap.
What we're working on
Laying up the array
Six square metres is the ceiling, so every cell has to earn its place on the deck. Encapsulation, string layout and how the array is bonded to the body all get decided together — a panel that delaminates on day three of the road event ends the season.
Composites
Mixing, wetting out and vacuum-bagging panels for the monocoque.
Strategy & telemetry
Working out how fast we can afford to go on a given forecast.