July 11, 2022
The Greenville High School Iron Lions were featured in the Saturday, July 9 edition of the Herald-Banner!
The story by Travis Hairgrove is below.
This Wednesday, Greenville High School's Iron Lions solar car team will check in at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth as they gear up for an attempt at a seventh national championship in the 2022 Solar Car Challenge.
In the past, the team has usually raced in multiple divisions. For example, last year they competed in both the “electric solar-powered” division (cars that use batteries that are charged in solar-powered bays and have to be capable of carrying a passenger and cargo) and the advanced division (cars with solar cells mounted on the body that are more high performance-type vehicles). This year, though, the Iron Lions are putting all their eggs in the advanced division basket with their “world class solar car,” which they've named Invictus—meaning “unconquerable.”
This will be the team's second year using Invictus, which they built over the course of the 2020-21 school year.
“We were able to make the car because we had the right students at the right time, because it required a lot of computer-aided design,” said Iron Lions lead mentor Joel Pitts. “They had to do months of research to decide what their goals were, then they had to build it virtually because it’s too sophisticated to build on the fly.”
“Every day, these students are still learning something new about the potential of this car,” Pitts added. “These kids are on par with or surpass many college teams.”
As hard as the Iron Lions worked on their car last year, the 2021 Solar Car Challenge was bittersweet for the team, as they won first place in the electric solar-powered division with an older car, Regulus, while Invictus finished in the advanced division at third place.
Despite not coming in first place, Invictus' ranking in its first year of competition was still impressive, considering that the car was sidelined on the fourth and final day of racing due to a safety issue with the car's electrical system. In other words, the car was so far ahead after the first three days of racing that even after sitting the fourth day out it still finished third (out of the six teams that competed in the advanced division).
“They worked so hard on the car last year, that many of them were sobbing when they learned that they couldn't race on the last day,” said assistant mentor George Kroncke.
Determined to overcome the issues that compromised Invictus' performance last year, the 11 students who will be representing the Iron Lions at the Solar Car Challenge have spent these last few hot summer weeks troubleshooting and continuing to fine tune Invictus.
“With our battery, we were using nickel-plated spot-welded connections, which were defective, but now we're using little plastic connectors that just slide into place, which means we can replace a single cell if it goes bad instead of having to replace the whole battery, and the judges will give us less of a penalty,” said Iron Lion Daniel Pitts, who will be a senior.
Another penalty-saving measure that the team has addressed is making sure their car's horn is hearty enough to withstand the frequent honking required in the race, as drivers are required to honk their horn every time they pass another vehicle.
“We just use a regular car horn, but they're not really meant to be used as much as we use them, so they can wear out. What we did is we added a second horn, so that if one burns out, we can flip a switch and use the other horn,” said Iron Lion Anika Escobar, who will also be a senior this coming school year.
By the time this story has been printed, the Iron Lions will have completed multiple drive tests, including an endurance drive from Commerce to Paris and a team driving test. After the team checks in this Wednesday, they will spend the next three days going through a rigorous “scrutineering” process, in which judges will make sure each car meets standards for structural integrity, braking, electrical and battery requirements, the car’s ability to run for an extended period of time, and other criteria.
Scrutineering also includes student presentations and question and answer sessions between judges and team members.
“The kids get a lot more from this than just being able to work on a car,” Kroncke said. “Communication and presentation skills are also a big part of it.”
“In doing this, they really get to become well-rounded young adults.”
On Sunday, July 17 through Wednesday, July 20, the Iron Lions will drive Invictus through four days of racing against five other teams in the advanced division, including last year's first and second place teams—from Raisback Aviation High School in Tukwila, Washington and Covenant Christian Academy in Colleyville, Texas, respectively.
