BOZEMAN — Independent organizers put on the annual Gallatin Valley Earth Day Festival at the local fairgrounds on Saturday. I chatted with some MSU engineering students on the solar race car they helped build.

"We’re an engineering club at Montana State University. We existed in the 90s and kind of went away and then restarted in 2017 and have been building this car that we raced for the first time last summer," says Colter Marcy.

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Colter, Grant Baldrigde, and Jack West are senior engineering students at MSU—they’re a part of the Bridger Solar Team, which has spent the last eight years building a solar-powered race car.

"It has an aluminum frame, the body is carbon fiber, it’s powered by solar panels, and it’s also powered with a big battery pack. And we compete in a three-day race called the Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP)," says Baldridge.

The FSGP is a qualifying event for the American Solar Challenge (ASC), where teams from universities across the country build solar vehicles to race and create a greater understanding of solar power.

"I think a typical engineering problem is to optimize efficiency, and so that’s what we’re trying to do here on the mechanical side. We’re trying to minimize how much the breaks are rubbing, how much friction there is, and trying to get the most aerodynamic body we can," says West.

The team says they’re glad to be at the Gallatin Valley Earth Day event—where many organizations and sponsors have come together to support and promote clean energy projects.

"I really enjoy that the club does outreach events like this. We’re a part of the community; we like to volunteer for other things like this and the Christmas Stroll. The community and the club members and the public has been really great," says Marcy.

Visit the Bridger Solar Team website for more information and to learn how you can get involved.