Tushka Hashi III is about a decade old, but the solar-powered car is still supplying opportunities for Choctaw Central High School Solar Car Team members to hone their engineering skills as they explore the power of solar energy.

The Choctaw phrase “Tushka Hashi” means “Sun Warrior” in English, and the car is the third one built in the team’s history.

Members of the Choctaw Central High School Solar Car Team recently returned from Australia, where they participated last month in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. They officially came in second in their category, labeled “Adventure Class,” explained Liddia Hughes, administrator of Choctaw Central High School’s Occupational Training Center. They were competing, Hughes said, against colleges and universities throughout the world.

Hughes also serves as one of the solar car sponsors.

The team has participated for years — and with great success — in the Solar Car Challenge that starts at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. This is the second time the squad has participated in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia.

Breanna Isaac is a graduate of Choctaw Central High School who’s working as a college intern with the Solar Car Team and other extracurricular activities at the Occupational Training Center. She attends East Central Community College. Isaac is concentrating on communications in her studies at ECCC, and she said she likes to promote the value of solar energy when she can. She’s also fascinated by the car.

“It runs on solar cells and doesn’t need gas,” she said. “I think what interested me, also, is that they said it was almost the same speed as a regular car on a good day. So far for this car, its record is 74 miles (per hour).”

Hughes said the challenge in Australia, from which the students recently returned, spanned 1,800 miles from Darwin to Adelaide. They had seven days to make the journey, with Isaac and teacher and solar car sponsor Adam Lewis sharing driving duties in the car, which holds one person at a time.

Tireless fundraising and donations raised money for the trip. Hughes paid special notice to the role of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, led by Tribal Chief Phyliss J. Anderson.

On Thursday, students on the team reflected on their work at the Choctaw Central High School’s Occupational Training Center.

“I get to do mechanical engineering,” junior Taelor Sockey said. “I get to work with different wires and see how they (function) in a car.”

Other students, too, talked about the technological lessons they’ve absorbed.

“I got to learn about electrical engineering and how the cells work and how to … provide solar energy to the batteries,” noted senior Braden Peters.

Mahali Henry, also a senior, said she, too, was glad to work on a car “that doesn’t harm the environment as much as a regular car.” She also said she was excited about seeing another country and enjoying the company of her classmates.

Although these students inherited a car that was already built by the time they joined the team, they had work to do to keep it maintained and to provide upgrades. Isaac described some recent battery adjustments.

“We had 33 small lithium-ion batteries that were placed in front of the car,” she said. “We replaced those batteries with eight bigger batteries. We still kept the 96-voltage system, but we switched the out batteries as far as placement and weight adjustment.”

The new batteries, she said, are now on the sides of the car.

The car itself, Hughes said, is made with a Kevlar top and a carbon-fiber bottom. The Kevlar provides durability and both materials keep the car light. Hughes said a mechanic comes to the school regularly to inspect the car.

Hughes said the Solar Car Team began about a dozen years ago, building three solar vehicles. The first, she said, weighed about 1,800 pounds and moved at about 12 to 15 miles an hour. The current car, she said, weighs about 500 pounds without a driver.

Hughes said she was proud of the team, which includes more than 20 students. Attending the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge were Antonio Bell, Jayna Ben, Kravon Willis, Taelor Sockey, Braden Peters, Mahali Henry and College Intern Breanna Isaac. In addition to Hughes, Solar Car Team sponsors David Sanders, Adam Lewis and Susan Strickline also attended.