A record 20 high school teams from 10 states began their week-long, cross-country race in solar cars Tuesday as the 23rd running of the Solar Car Challenge got underway from Fort Worth.
In a span of just seven days, the teams, which include nine from North Texas, are competing in a cross-country race of more than 1,300 miles that will conclude Monday in Palmdale, CA.
The race will have the teams travel from Fort Worth to Snyder, TX (Day 1) and then onto Carlsbad, NM (Day 2); El Paso, TX (Day 3 and Day 4 rest day); Phoenix, AZ (Day 5); Palms, CA (Day 6) and Palmdale, CA (Day 7).
“It’s an incredible opportunity for these young people to see what it is like, testing their skills, their abilities,” said Dr. Lehman Marks, founder of the Solar Car Foundation and race director. “They’re going to be driving on the roadway – we prefer two-lane streets that have a nice shoulder for them to go through – and other traffic is going to be going around them during the next seven days to get to California.”
The North Texas contingent that qualified for the Solar Car Challenge and took the green flag were the Winston School of Dallas; All Saints Episcopal School of Fort Worth; Coppell High School; Plano Green Team; Liberty Christian of Argyle; Prosper High School; Covenant Christian Academy of Colleyville; Wylie East High School; and Greenville High School.
“I think it’s going to be awesome to get this (solar car) on the road, get the caravan moving and go to California,” Prosper High team captain Tanten Jones said. “That is spectacular.”
In addition to the local participants, teams traveled from as far as New York, North Carolina and California to compete across four divisions – Classic, Advanced Classic (used their classic car for more than three years), Advanced and Electric-Solar Powered – in the cross-country race.
Throughout the cross-country journey, Western High School, the lone representative from Florida, will pay tribute to the victims of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
The schools are approximately 20 miles apart in South Florida and the Western High School team placed decals on each side of its solar car – “Douglas Strong” on one side and “MSDStrong” on the other – in remembrance of the 17 students and staff members that were killed in the incident.
“This hit really close to home and we were at school when this happened and we got locked down immediately,” Western High team captain Brandon Abin said. “They are close friends; it’s our community.
You always hear about these things happening elsewhere, but when it hits close to home it really hits deep. … It’s something that scarred us for a while.”
In addition to the teams from Texas and Florida, the others competing are Palmdale (CA) High School; La Canada (CA) Engineering Club; Staten Island (NY) Solar Car/Green Technology; Leesville Solar Car Team (Raleigh, NC); Dove Academy (Oklahoma City, OK); Lisa Academy North Solar Car Team (Little Rock, AR.); Pana (IL) High School; Houston (MS) Solar Car Race Team; and Frontier High School (Kansas City, MS).

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.