This summer the Oregon State’s Solar Vehicle Team will once again be competing in the American Solar Challenge (ASC) and Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP). The FSGP (July 17 – 19) is a three-day track race against universities from around the country and serves as the qualifier for the biannual ASC (July 21 – 28), an eight-day road race from Austin, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota purely on solar power!

The team first competed in the 2008 ASC and again in 2012. On the second attempt, the team took sixth place out of seventeen teams, and won the “Spirit of the Rayce” award for being the embodiment of what the American Solar Challenge stands for: excellence in engineering, team work, and sportsmanship. Most recently, the team took first place at the 2013 FSGP and once again was awarded the “Spirit of the Rayce.”

The team consists of driven engineering students who are getting an incredible opportunity to apply their developing engineering, problem solving, and teamwork skills to an exciting project. The team has changed significantly within the last year as many of the senior team members have moved on from Oregon State, providing newer students the opportunity to get involved in the team’s leadership and experience solar car racing for the first time.

The team left Corvallis on July 7 and arrived in Austin onJuly 12 and was first to pass inspection. Vehicle inspections ensure that all teams have road-worthy vehicles before the competition FSGP.

Follow the team on their journey and the race progress via the live cam at osusvt.org or on facebook (facebook.com/osusvt) and twitter (@OSUSVT).

— Maxwell Bald, OSU SVT Mechanical Captain