Today we say goodbye to the (High School) Solar Car Challenge held at the Texas Motor Speedway. Here are the official results (dashed lines show the 2019 winners). In spite of rain on Day 1, RAHS Green Energy has done very well indeed. Covenant Christian and Wylie East have both exceeded all Classic scores since 2009, thanks to thinking seriously about aero.
The beautifully engineered catamaran from Iron Lions did not live up to its full potential, because of battery problems on Day 4. However, they still came 3rd, in spite of only racing for three days. I expect to see this car to do very well in the future.
The three rookie teams (marked with black squares) have done extremely well. If the Classic and Advanced Classic cars were grouped together, Holy Solars would be 3rd, KCAL would be 7th, and WASP would be 9th out of 10.
Let me finish with the official group photo (click to zoom), and what I believe to be the correct car identifications:
Front row: Staten Island (Advanced), RAHS Green Energy (Advanced);
Second row: Plano Green Team (Advanced), Covenant Christian (Advanced), Iron Lions (Advanced);
Third row: LISA Academy (orange shirts, Advanced Classic), Prosper (Advanced Classic), Holy Solars (Classic), Kentucky Solar Cats (Classic), Iron Lions (ESP), Covenant Christian (Advanced Classic);
Fourth row: KCAL (Classic), WASP (Classic), Wylie East (Advanced Classic), MISD Shine Runners (Advanced Classic), Coppell (ESP), NTCA (Classic), Western High School Solar Cats (ESP), Heroes’ Alliance (ESP);
Rear: All Saints (Advanced), Prosper (Cruiser).
Scientific Gems 