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.
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That’s a wrap on day 1 of the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) 2026!
For the first time, FSGP is running at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minnesota, a 3.1-mile road course better known for racing cars of the gas kind…until this week.
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The sun has just about risen on this year’s Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP), the pre-qualifying race before the renowned American Solar Challenge. FSGP officially kicks off tomorrow morning for the teams that have passed rigorous safety and quality checks, known as “scrutineering.”
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of speaking directly with teams from around the world, including the Delft Solar Team from the Netherlands and ÉTS Éclipse from Montreal. But for my final profile, I sat down with students from a small liberal arts school just outside St. Louis, right along the Mississippi River. Principia College has a long-running solar car program, which is astonishing considering the school is in the middle of phasing out its only engineering program.
So it was no surprise that after a few minutes speaking with the team’s leadership, I realized the car might end up being the least interesting thing about them.
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It’s now July, which means schools from around the world are making final preparations for the Electrek American Solar Challenge 2026, and this year is going to be an especially notable one! A record 42 teams from colleges in the US, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands are registered to compete in the Formula Sun Grand Prix pre-qualifier track event in less than two weeks.
This is a big deal for teams. Apart from FSGP being a competition in its own right, it’s the opportunity for students to prove their hand-built solar car has what it takes to hit the open road and trek 1,500+ miles across the United States for the renowned American Solar Challenge.
Here’s everything you need to know about both competitions, the teams, and the schedule.
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This July, the 2026 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) and American Solar Challenge (ASC) head north to Minnesota, and one of the 46 registered teams is making the trip for the very first time. The Delft Solar Team is flying in from the Netherlands, and they aren’t exactly showing up empty-handed.
I caught up with Rosa Van Wijngaarden, who runs PR for the team, to talk about who they are, what they’re driving, and what it’s like to prep for a race on a continent the team has never set wheels on.
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With a new year comes a new season of solar car racing! The official dates for the 2026 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) and the 2026 Electrek American Solar Challenge (ASC) have been released.
In addition, I’m excited to share that not only will this year’s FSGP track event be hosted at an entirely new racing complex, but event officials tell me a record 46 teams have registered to compete! This includes colleges from the US, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
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Big thanks to this year’s event sponsors: Velotric, NIU, Altair, Bridgestone, MathWorks, Generac, IOSiX, SunCat Solar, Tesla, and Event Partner, the National Park Service
It’s been another extremely successful year for the Electrek American Solar Challenge (ASC) and the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) pre-qualifier event! Now that racing has concluded and we’ve had time to decompress from all the solar excitement, here’s a quick recap and some highlights from the 2024 season.
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The 2024 Electrek American Solar Challenge (ASC) will arrive at Scotts Bluff National Monument in western Nebraska on Friday, July 26, marking the beginning of the final stage of what I can only imagine has been a grueling yet rewarding cross-country competition.
Congratulations to #2 – Michigan, which is currently leading the Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV) class by 53 miles with a total of 1233.2 miles traveled.
In the Multi-Occupant Vehicle (MOV) class, #55 – Poly Montreal and #828 – App State are currently neck and neck with 907 miles and 901 miles, respectively.
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Over the weekend, 16 teams that qualified from the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) departed from the Adventure Science Center in Nashville, TN, for an epic 8-day 1,550+ mile trek to Casper, WY, using nothing but energy from the sun.
Now, the solar vehicles have completed the first stage of the cross-country Electrek American Solar Challenge (ASC). Here are the results and how you can track the team’s locations in real time!
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Big thanks to this year’s event sponsors: Velotric, NIU, MathWorks, Generac, IOSi, SunCat Solar, and Tesla
In what can only be described as one of the most challenging years we’ve seen, teams competing in the 2024 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) found themselves navigating spotty weather, an unfamiliar track, and for some, critical mechanical issues at the eleventh hour.
The final day of the FSGP track event concluded on Thursday, July 18. Following the awards ceremony that evening, event officials announced which teams would advance to Saturday’s 1,550+ mile Electrek American Solar Challenge (ASC) cross-country main event.
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We’re proud to announce Electrek is sponsoring the American Solar Challenge this year. The 2018 event (PDF Flyer), which begins next weekend, will see racers take their Solar-powered “cars” from Omaha, Nebraska to Bend, Oregon loosely through the Oregon Trail. I use quotes because to get the Wh/mile equation on these vehicles to within what’s possible with a car footprint solar array, you’ll essentially need 4-wheeled electric bicycles.
The American Solar Challenge (ASC) is a multi-day, 1,500-2,000 mile cross-country endurance rally across North America. The event is typically held every other year during the summer and is open to collegiate level solar car teams from countries all over the world. The routes have varied greatly over the course of the event’s rich history, but they are always designed to provide teams with a great opportunity to demonstrate their solar cars under real world driving conditions and thoroughly test the reliability of all onboard systems.
This year is a bit more interesting also in that they are now racing a cruiser class which will act and look a lot more like traditional road vehicles…