The second day of racing at this year’s Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix concluded late last night, with the finalization of lap results. The third and final day of racing is now underway, with 30 teams cleared for the track and 12 qualified to compete in the cross-country Electrek American Solar Challenge.
I expect the latter number to increase significantly by the end of the day.
Day 2 results
École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) from Quebec is leading the Single Occupant Vehicle class with 234 laps, neck-and-neck with Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands, which trails with 221 laps. Delft still holds the fastest 3.1-mile lap at 3 minutes 12 seconds. This comes out to about 58 mph. An astonishing speed for a student-built fully solar vehicle. And even more, seeing it average just below that all day.
As for the Multi-Occupant Vehicle class, things look a little bleak. Only two of the nine vehicles have qualified for the American Solar Challenge (ASC). These are Georgia Tech and App State, with 160 laps and 146 laps, respectively.
To qualify for the 2026 Electrek American Solar Challenge, teams were required to achieve a specific mileage during the FSGP:
- 200 miles (65 laps) in one day on the track
- Or 300 miles (97 laps) in two consecutive days
Unlike SOV, however, for those in the MOV class, the ranking (first, second, third) is determined by a scoring system and something called an S-value. This is derived from a formula that balances speed, laps, and person-miles against a target speed set by the team (e.g., 30 mph).
Judging by how the results are looking so far on the final day here, we can expect teams from Iowa State, Poly Montréal, maybe MIT, and many others to qualify for ASC by day’s end, assuming nothing catastrophic happens to those teams’ cars.
Can find results from day 2 and see how all the teams are doing on the American Solar Challenge’s results page.
Day 2 images
Here are some images from yesterday, taken by one of the wonderful event photographers here, Rishi Mohan.
Stay tuned for final results!
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments