American Solar Challenge cars make checkpoint stop in Tulsa

TULSA, Okla. — The American Solar Challenge’s solar-powered cars made a checkpoint stop in Tulsa on Thursday as they travel 1,500 miles across the United States in a multi-state endurance race.

“The Electrek American Solar Challenge is a collegiate solar car event,” explained Gail Lueck, the Event Director for the 2026 American Solar Challenge. “Teams of college students design and build solar-powered vehicles. [It] takes them about two years and then they get to come compete with them in the Electrek American Solar Challenge.”

Lueck said it’s a long road for teams to reach this portion of the competition.

“All of these teams started out in the middle of July up in Brainerd, Minnesota going through a process we call scrutineering. It’s a multi-day inspection process. Following that, the teams that pass inspection got to go out on the track with the Brainerd International Raceway and compete for three days, racking up as many laps as they could to both compete in that event as well as qualify for this event [by] demonstrating their road worthiness and reliability on a closed course track. 19 teams were eligible to start from Minneapolis on this 1,500 mile trek from Minneapolis to Amarillo, Texas.”

Each team made a required checkpoint stop at the Route 66 Historical Village on Thursday, giving the public a chance to see these unique solar-powered cars up close.

“This morning, we released the solar cars from Carthage, Missouri. They are now following Route 66, making their way here to Tulsa, Oklahoma and later this afternoon you’ll see 14 solar cars that are scheduled to come through this afternoon…When they reach Tulsa, they have to stay for a minimum of 30 minutes and then they have their choice between staying and solar charging, which some teams may want to do given the cloudy weather and the rain that they just drove through, or if they’ve got extra energy available, they’re allowed to go out and drive optional challenge loops here in Tulsa.”

Lueck said the collegiate solar car event has been held since 1990, providing students the unique chance to gain hands-on experience and knowledge in several different fields.

“We do this predominately for experiential learning, providing them an opportunity to get outside of the classroom, get hands-on with a project. Designing and building a solar car [is] not the kind of problem they’re going to figure out in the back of a textbook and so we provide them this hands-on experience that really goes even beyond engineering. They have to plan out their own logistics, how to get their crew from point A to point B, how to get all of their support vehicles along the route, as well as the fundraising side, the project management side, the business side, marketing side of the program. It’s really kind of like running a small business to go on this event.”

The American Solar Challenge also allows students to show off their engineering skills and talents to prospective employers.

“Many of the sponsors that you see listed on our website, they are sponsors because they want to recruit these bright young minds for future internships, co-ops, full-time positions. You’ve got companies like Blue Origin and Tesla and SpaceX and Ansys and General Matter and more that are really looking for these students that know about innovation, they know about problem solving, they know about teamwork. They get to come out and see the students work on these cars and what they learn firsthand rather than just from reading a resume.”

To learn more about the American Solar Challenge or to track live updates of each team’s progress, you can visit the challenge’s official website here.