{"id":97028,"date":"2025-07-27T15:31:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T15:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97028\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T15:31:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T15:31:18","slug":"fort-worth-students-lead-charge-during-solar-car-race-at-texas-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97028\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth students lead charge during solar car race at Texas Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

A blur of cars and people fills a garage at Texas Motor Speedway as teams work through their checklists and make quick fixes.<\/p>\n

The organized chaos had a reason. Teams of high school students from across the nation prepared their vehicles for the Solar Car Challenge, an annual event held July 17-23 in Fort Worth, which aims to educate participants in science, engineering and alternative energy.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

Students spent the past year working on their cars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before race day, the teams\u2019 cars must go through \u201cscrutineering,\u201d a series of six tests that are evaluated by judges and ensure all rules are followed and each vehicle is safe to operate.<\/p>\n

\"\"Garages are full of people and machines during the Solar Car Challenge on July 17, 2025, at Texas Motor Speedway in north Fort Worth. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

The Falcon EV team from Fort Worth Country Day toiled away in the garage. Co-captains Jason Pham and Andrew Lobo worked quickly and calmly as they prepared their car.<\/p>\n

\u201cScrutineering is actually way more intense than the race day, or that\u2019s how it felt,\u201d Pham said. \u201cBecause right here we have a test to pass to be able to race, and we want to race. This is the most important step for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Falcon EV captains Andrew Lobo, left, and Jason Pham work together to make quick changes during the Solar Car Challenge on July 17, 2025, at Texas Motor Speedway in north Fort Worth. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Pham and Lobo participated in the challenge. Their team has competed for the past three years, they said. The difference is both students stepped up into team leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a lot more work, but it\u2019s definitely a lot more rewarding too,\u201d Lobo said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Solar panels line the top of the Falcon EV during the Solar Car Challenge on July 17, 2025, at Texas Motor Speedway in north Fort Worth. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

The event is a competition, but teams help each other and foster a collaborative atmosphere, both captains said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone plays fair,\u201d Pham said. \u201cEveryone wants the best for each team because we want to compete at each other\u2019s best, not their worst. That\u2019s what the event is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Abby Goss is a multimedia fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at maryabby.goss@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n

Republish This Story<\/p>\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/p>\n

Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A blur of cars and people fills a garage at Texas Motor Speedway as teams work through their…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,358,62581,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-97028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-motor-speedway","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114925921132098948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}