Solar car teams race to finish line

It was a cloudy day, but the 27th annual Texas Solar Race Car Event powered up and went to the finish line without a hitch.

The races were a culminating event for students who have been working for weeks designing and building miniature solar-powered cars. Though these are solar car races, there are no worries if the sun doesn’t shine – the cars also have battery-power as a backup.

Just over 270 elementary and middle school teams, with 1,036 students, competed with three or four students on each team. Approximately 46 elementary schools and 15 middle schools participated this year.

After preliminary heats, semifinals, and a final race, awards were handed out to champions in the elementary and middle school divisions.

The Solar Cars program is a non-tuition-basedafterschool science program for fourth through eighth grade students. They are provided a solar panel, gear box, and axle rods but the rest of the car design is up to them. In addition to learning about teamwork, students are also developing their engineering skills through the design and testing process.

The first Solar Car Races were held in 1996 and included just 16 students from Rayburn MS. The competition included three categories – team presentation, team poster design, and race results. As the event grew in size, the presentation component was no longer possible. Now teams are only judged on the races.

The results are:

Middle School Race Results 

Elementary School Race Results 

View Solar Cars 2024 photos.