Dr. Daniel Holland vividly recalls when the idea of solar car racing at Illinois State University entered his consciousness. It came when former student Vickram Jhaveri asked the professor and chair of the Department of Physics if students could form a team. Holland inquired how much a solar car cost, and the ambitious student quoted a six-figure price tag.
“I told him he was crazy,” Holland said, laughing.
But Jhaveri was persistent. And creative. He suggested buying a used solar car from the University of Minnesota for the low, low price of $10,000. Then-president Al Bowman signed off on it.
“I’m not sure Dr. Bowman or anyone else believed we could pull it off at the time,” Holland said. “But he was willing to give it a shot.”
Solar car racing officially began at Illinois State with the purchase of that “shell” of a car back in 2004. It had no wheels, no motor. One of the team’s first tasks was removing the car’s solar array, a painstaking task Holland compared to removing—without damaging—Pringles glued to a sheet of paper.
That car became Mercury 1, and the team’s first competition came in 2005 in Texas. Of 42 teams entered in the Formula Sun Grand Prix, a multiday test of solar cars on a closed road course, only 20 teams qualified for the ensuing American Solar Challenge, a semi-annual cross-country race. Illinois State was one of them.
In the race from Austin, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the Redbirds finished 18th out of 18 teams that competed. But they had already scored a win by finishing ahead of 22 teams that failed to qualify and two more who qualified but did not participate. “In the grand scheme of things, we beat 24 other teams,” Holland explained. “We finished the race and, as a first-year team with no experience and no engineering school, it was a remarkable achievement.”
Much has changed since then. The Solar Car Raycing Team is now driving Mercury 6, the team’s sixth build, and the results have improved dramatically over the years. Illinois State has earned several podium finishes at the annual summer races. Technology has improved, too, and the Redbird team has adapted.
But the experience gained through the Solar Car Raycing Team has largely remained the same.
“Every single day, there’s a new problem to solve, and usually it’s on you to solve it,” said rising senior Shaun Nayahangan, a computer science major from Woodstock. “You’re the expert, you do the research, and you solve the problem.”
Nayahangan will be part of the Solar Car Raycing Team heading to the Formula Sun Grand Prix at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, this weekend. The Redbirds must first pass “scrutineering”—checks on teams’ electrical systems, battery protection, mechanical integrity, and overall regulation compliance—before participating in the competitive portion of the event, July 16-18.
The Illinois State team must complete 205 miles (66 laps) in a single day on the track or 308 miles (98 laps) over two consecutive days to qualify for the American Solar Car Challenge. The cross-country race will cover a 1,500-plus-mile journey from Nashville, Tennessee, to Casper, Wyoming. It begins July 20.
It’s a lot of work for members of the team over two long weeks, and every member of the team has multiple jobs. Illinois State’s Mercury 6 will be supported by lead and trail vehicles and a trailer stocked with tools. Nayahangan, a vice president of the team for the past two years, is an electrical expert, drives one of the support vehicles, and prepares meals for the team.
Nayahangan joined the Solar Car Raycing Team after discovering it at Festival ISU during his first week on campus. As a child who annoyed his parents by taking apart his toys to see how they worked, he was hooked right from the start.
“This has allowed me to call on all my hobbies and things that I’ve been interested in to push the team forward,” he said. “The Solar Car Team has been the best place for me to showcase everything I can do.”
Students join the team for various reasons. Some, like Nayahangan, gravitate toward the electrical aspect. Some are car enthusiasts. There are plenty of physics and computer science majors, but others, too. One past president was a music major. They all find what they’re interested in, what they’re good at, and contribute in different ways.
“Our numbers have gone up and down, and the majors have changed over the years,” said Holland, who counts this year’s roster as one of the biggest in team history.
“One of the best things students get out of this besides the technical stuff is learning teamwork and crisis management, because there are times when we’re out racing when we have to figure out what’s going wrong, and we’ve only got an hour to do it.”
—Dr. Daniel Holland
This summer’s competitions will likely mark the final competitive races for the team’s Mercury 6. Fundraising efforts are already underway to help the team reach a goal of $60,000 for the build of Mercury 7. Gifts have come from sources internal and external, personal and commercial. They’ve come in forms of cash and gifts-in-kind. The sides of Illinois State’s Mercury 6 are covered with decals recognizing sponsors just like NASCAR and Formula 1 cars.
Holland serves as the primary fundraiser and relationship-builder for the Solar Car Raycing Team, but students have been involved in that, too. Fundraising, like everything else associated with being part of the team, requires creative problem-solving skills.
“For a lot of people, fixing things and solving problems are the best part,” Nayahangan said. “It can be stressful, but it’s a lot of fun, too.”
