Getting to Know the Team

Having a competitive car is obviously a major factor in solar car racing, but the team racing the car is what truly makes a team capable to win races. We thought we would give you a little insight into the lives of our team members. Even though solar car takes up a lot of time,all of the members of our team find time to participate in other extra-curricular activities. These other activities include cross country, BETA, Anchor, tennis, cheerleading and golf.

Thomas Brown is a member of the Anchor, Volunteer, and Charity club.

Catherine Marsh is in Anchor and Beta club, is an HHS Diamond Girl, and in FCA.

Suzy Reese is in FCA, an HHS Diamond Girl, runs Cross Country, and is a part of the community theatre.

Hunter Powell is involved in FCA, Anchor Club, BETA Club, and runs Cross Country.

Reagan Byrne is a member of the BETA and Anchor Club, an HHS Diamond Girl, the Spirit Club, and run Cross Country.

Jay Michael Alford is a member of FCA and the BETA Club.

Nick Callahan is an Anchor and BETA Club member, a member of the Golf Team, and in the Cars Club.

Will Turman is on the Tennis Team and in the Wildlife and Fisheries Club.

Nolen Hood is a member of Anchor and FCA.

Hillary Colbert is a member in Anchor, BETA, and the Spirit Club; also, she recently became a big sister to Kaylee Alivia.

Sydney Harrell is a member of the BETA, Spirit Club, and in the community theatre.

Elise Mobley participates in cheerleading, BETA, is an HHS Diamond Girl, and is in the community theatre.

Whitney George is a high school cheerleader, a tennis player, runs cross country, in the Spirit, Anchor, and BETA Clubs, and participates in Houston Community Theatre.

Karmen Spratlin is a high school cheerleader, a member of the Anchor, BETA, and Spirit Clubs, a Houston Diamond Girl, runs Country, and also participates in the Houston Community Theatre.

Spring Training!!

Thomas Brown showing off his smile before zooming off in Sundancer!!

Stopping to make a quick driver change in Sundancer!

The girls taking Sundancer II out of the shop to start charging for the training run!!

Sunday, April 11, our team took Sundancer and Sundancer II on a training run through Houston! The guys and girls trained separately with the guys using Sundancer and the girls training with Sundancer II. Both cars simulated different scenarios that could happen at the race including flat tires and Code Blues (emergency). We are pleased with how well the training run went and love seeing our team improve with each run we take!

The PLC Special Project Class from ICC working with our team and learning about the cars!

Reagan Byrne and Hillary Colbert acting as Whitney George's brakes as she zooms around campus!

A close up of our back tire after Sundancer II accidently ran through a huge mud puddle!

Clay McNutt from ICC paid our team a visit this week and brought a few of his students from the PLC Special Projects Class to work with the cars!! Lately we have been putting the finishing touches on Sundancer II and have started testing it for any problems! We are getting closer and closer to fininshing our car and can't wait to start training runs!

Three Day Training Run!!

With the Hunt-Winston Solar Challenge swiftly approaching, our team has started planning several training runs!! We will soon be taking a three day training run to Meridian to give the team a taste of what the cross-country race from Dallas, Texas, to Golden, Colorado, will be like this summer! We are still discussing dates but plan to go on the run in either April or May!

Tupelo Automobile Museum!

Stopping at Smokies to make a quick driver change!!

While loading our car onto the trailer, the bars on our ramp starting breaking!!

Whitney George giving a little attitude while being safety officer!

The team working together to clean our array before the convention!

WTVA interviewing Jay Michael Alford about our car and the upcoming race this summer!

Members of the team talking with Mrs. Spain, the owner of Tupelo Automobile Museum!

Sundancer posing in front of the Tupelo Automobile Museum!

Loading Sundancer after a fun day at the museum!

March 26 our team was invited to display Sundancer at the Tupelo Automobile Museum Convention located at....you guessed it, the Tupelo Automobile Museum!! We were excited to tell the convention goers about our car and are thankful we were invited!! We also made the trip to Tupelo a mini training run even though we had to trailer part of the way because of cloudy skies.

Spring Fever

Next week will be our Spring Break!! Even though we are excited about the short break away from school, we are still working hard to get as much done on our car as possible!! We can't wait for spring to get here because this is the time our team starts taking training runs! We are also excited about our possible three day training run to Biloxi towards the end of the school year!!

Nick Callahan using his special touch to help finish painting our car!

Jay Michael and Nick spray painting Sundancer!

(Judging by their behavior afterwards, we think they might have accidently inhaled some fumes!!)......JUST KIDDING!!

Jay Michael gives Sundancer's new paint job a thumbs up!

Sundancer's shiny new paint job!

Catherine Marsh and Nick Callahan cutting zip-tyes to make room for more wire

Catherine Marsh, Jay Michael Alford, and Nick Callahan working together to finish wiring Sundancer II!

Nick Callahan, Catherine Marsh, Suzy Reese, and Jay Michael Alford splicing wires to connect to the switches!

We are almost finished with Sundancer II and are getting excited about this year's race that will start in Texas and go all the way to Colorado!! We plan to be completely through with our car by March just in time to be on display at the Tupelo Automobile Center March 26!!

Surprise Visitors!!

The girls taking time to get a quick picture with Mr. Vaughn Long!!

Vaughn Long taking Sundancer II out for a spin!

Reagan Byrne driving Sundancer II back into the shop after its trip around the high school campus!!

This week we had a couple of surprise visitors!! They came to look at our cars and we even convinced one of them to drive Sundancer II around the high school!!

Hillary Colbert , Reagan Byrne and Whitney George wiring our left blinker switch while being watched by Hunter Powell!

Hillary Colbert and Karmen Spratlin splicing two wires while Reagan Byrne starts stripping.....wires!!

The girls and Jay working together to wire Sundancer II!!

Secret Meeting!

The meeting was so secretive, we had to whisper everything in each others' ears!!

Everybody working on "The secret plan"!!


This past Sunday, February 21, the girls met together to have a secret meeting to plan something special for this year's race from Dallas, Texas to Golden, Colorado!! All of the girls have been sworn to secrecy and won't reveal their secrets until the beginning of the Hunt-Winston Solar Car Challenge July 16-25!!

Catherine Marsh and Jay Micheal Alford zip-tying wires

Jay Michael and Catherine routing the wires around the frame of the car!

Jay Michael and Catherine metering the wires!

Jay Michael showing Nick Callahan where to start taping the wires to the array!!

Boys -VS- Girls!!

The girls taking time to practice taking off the tire before competing against the boys! Hmm I wonder who will win?!

The girls working as a team to take the tire on and off in 40 seconds to beat the guys!!

The guys racing against the clock to beat the girls score while being timed by Hillary Colbert!

While Hunter and Jay were doing their victory dance for taking the tire on and off in 35 seconds, Reagan wasn't having the same luck when she hit her head on the bottom of our car!!

Today we had a bit of a friendly competition between the guys and girls! While both teams did great jobs the guys won with an amazing 35 second score! The girls fell just behind with a score of 40 seconds! As you can see in the picture above, a couple of the guys were a little over excited about their victory!!

Reagan Byrne and Hillary Colbert splicing two wires together!

Reagan Byrne holding up the array while Karmen Spratlin starts taping the wires to the array!

Karmen Spratlin, Whitney George, and Hillary Colbert using NASA tape to secure the wires under our array!

Hunter Powell, Reagan Byrne, and Hillary Colbert metering the wires!

Future MIT Professor Hunter Powell teaching the girls proper wiring techniques!

Reagan Byrne and Hillary Colbert connecting solar panels in series!

(CAUTION HIGH VOLTAGE!!)

Karmen Spratlin cutting a wire for Whitney George