By Travis Hairgrove
Greenville Herald-Banner
Even after sidelining one of their competition vehicles when a safety issue was discovered Thursday morning, Greenville High School’s Iron Lions solar car team finished strong at the 2021 Solar Car Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway, earning first place in the electric solar-powered division and third place in the advanced division.
The team’s older car to compete in the challenge, Regulus’ first place win in the electric solar-powered division marked their sixth consecutive national championship.
Over the course of four days of racing, Regulus racked up a total of 315 laps (or 472.5 miles), winning by a commanding lead against the team which came in second—the Western High School Solar Cats from Davie, Florida—who drove a total of 247 laps (or 370.5 miles).
One of the special challenges of the electric solar-powered division is having to frequently change the battery, which sits in a solar-powered charging station while the car drives through the challenge.
“They have to change the battery every 45 minutes and get it back on the track as fast as possible, which is no easy feat because each battery weighs about 145 lbs,” said Iron Lions’ lean mentor Joel Pitts.
Meanwhile, the Iron Lions’ advanced division vehicle—the new-for-2021 high-performance vehicle, Invictus—performed so well on its three days of racing, that even with it being sidelined on day 4 due to an issue with its battery “that could possibly injure the driver or cause irreparable damage to the vehicle,” it still came in third place overall, by the time the Solar Car Challenge was over.
At the end of day 3, Invictus was just barely hanging onto first place, and after the race’s fourth and final day (when the vehicle was sidelined), it came in third place with a total of 490 laps (or 735 miles) behind the Raisbeck Aviation High School Green Energy Team from Tukwila, Washington, who totaled 649 laps (or 973.5 miles) and the Covenant Christian Academy Solar Car Team from Colleyville, Texas, who completed 524 laps (or 786 miles).
Despite the tough decision being made to sideline the vehicle, the Iron Lions were still pleased with what they were able to achieve with Invictus in its first year of racing.
“We are so proud of the students’ effort with this car; it is a great example of what kids can accomplish when they work hard,” a post on the Iron Lions’ Facebook page said. “The timing is unfortunate, but one of the most important steps in the engineering cycle is accepting what is not working and improving the system.”
In addition to placing well in the race itself, the Iron Lions also received the Solar Car Challenge’s Lockheed Martin Award for its work on Invictus. The award is a special recognition given to a team for excellence in engineering.
