KENT, Conn. — For the past two years, a team of teens from Kent School in Litchfield County, also known as the Holy Solars, have worked to engineer and design a solar vehicle that runs solely from the sun.
Test laps are taking place now for what’s coming down the road. The team is heading back to the Solar Car Challenge at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
Solomon Wakin, a rising senior at Kent and one of the drivers of the “Solar Reliance,” the name of their car, said of the competition, “Basically what it is, is how many laps can you drive in the allotted time, with the allotted time for charging it.”
He added, “You get to travel across the country and do this cool competition, and I get to drive on a racetrack, I drive on a Nascar track.”
Brandon Cooke, who recently graduated from Kent and is returning to the competition in Fort Worth, said of their car, “it is basically a four-wheel design, it has a big battery and it’s powered by solar energy, pure electricity and nothing else.”
Kent has won its division in the Solar Car Challenge twice in the past few years. This year, the team of 15 from the Holy Solars are excited to move up to the advanced division at the Solar Car Challenge.
Wakin added, “it’s just been a great amount of teamwork to make such a great car.”
The Holy Solars from Kent begin this year’s Solar Car Challenge on July 13 at the Texas Motor Speedway. To learn more, click here.
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Jimmy Altman is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at jaltman@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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