Paintsville high school takes 4th in Texas solar car competition

PAINTSVILLE, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — The distance between Johnson Central High School in Paintsville and Texas Motor Speedway just outside of Dallas is 1,023 miles.

Earlier this summer, a group of JC students competed in the National Solar Car Challenge.

The contest started in 1993 to help get students interested in science and engineering, as well as raise awareness about alternative energy sources.

This year marked the first time the Johnson Central team competed in the contest and it’s safe to say they made a strong first impression.

“We came in there not knowing what to expect and we found out right away that we had a pretty good car,” explained rising senior Brady Daniel.

The team, known as “EagleX,” brought enough heat to Texas to season a brisket to perfection when competing in the Classic Car Division of the solar car contest for the first time.

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Despite the confidence, there was no shortage of nerves for the team of seven students.

“Really nervous,” said rising senior Shadrach Reinthaler. “Are we going to pass scrutiny? Are we going to get to be able on the racetrack? In my eyes, I would have been like, ‘Is all this for nothing? Like, am I going to get down there and fail?’ So it was a lot of nerves there.”

“The first actual day of scrutineering, we went through the tunnel at Texas Motor Speedway, it was really surreal,” described rising senior Aiden Burkett. “The place is huge. It’s probably the entire size of this town. Like, the place is so big in person.”

Once settled in, the EagleX team soared like their eagle-mascot namesake.

“We knew we were going to be a top-five team, and we tracked; we were tracking our laps as we were going,” Burkett said. “So, we kind of knew the position we were in the day before we even got on the track. So, we were really just trying to be as competitive as we can out there. We were trying to; we had a certain mental lapse here trying to aim for.”

Johnson Central came in fourth place in their division during the contest.

While it’s something to be proud of and they’re holding their heads high, the Eagles are already chomping at the bit for their return trip to Texas and the first-place crown.

“We were grateful that we placed fourth, but we know we could have done better,” Daniel detailed. “There were some days where we didn’t get the laps we needed to, the sun wasn’t out, so we weren’t getting as good a charge. There was a number of things, and we were just like, we were satisfied, but we’re not satisfied because we know we can do better.”

Competition aside, this experience created bonds that’ll last a lifetime and created new opportunities for these students once they graduate high school.

“I think we’ll just remember a lot of the friendships and the connections we built,” said recent Johnson Central graduate Hudson Lewandoski. “Our advisor, Chuck Wetzel, I didn’t really know him going into this year and these past two weeks I’ve got really close to him and I think I’ll always remember that.”

“It’s something that most people never will get to experience in their life, and we got to experience it and we got to do it and we got to be good at it,” said rising junior Elijah Skaggs.

“This project has 100% helped us have possible scholarships, internships, letters of recommendation,” described rising senior Ivy Young. “We have been offered internships there down in Texas that we could possibly do after or during college.”

This opportunity also allowed the students to show off what they call their “Holler Pride.”

“What I will say about these kids is they’re super smart, super motivated, they’re very personable,” said advisor Nathan Reel. “They went down to the event and immediately other teams, other judges, everybody kind of fell in love with us and fell in love with them and what they were able to do and how proud is the name that we chose because we wanted our community to be proud of us. These kids, they were here all summer. They were here late into the night on several occasions.”

Johnson Central was not the only team that performed well in the National Solar Car Challenge.

Somerset Independent High School also competed and came in first place in the Electric Solar Division.

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