Senior Alexis Lam, sophomore Amelia Lau and sophomore Nicole Liang tinker with Amaterasu’s suspension during tryouts. Rx2 has recruited new technical members for their upcoming season.
By Britney Vo
Staff Writer
Humid Texas air floods through the car garage, tools clinking together as Rx2 cleans up and triple-checks the car for any loose bolts the night before their race. Excitement buzzes through the team as they anticipate the 1,000-mile cross-country course from Fort Worth to Fort Stockton, Texas. In five days, their car would cross the finish line into first place, winning the Electric Solar-Powered Division of the Solar Car Challenge, traveling 355.3 miles—10 miles ahead of the second-place team.
Captain senior Alexis Lam started Rx2 in 2025, an all-girls solar car team with 14 members, two mentors and three subteams. Operations manages the team’s funding and marketing, while mechanical and electrical focus on the design and construction. “In HelioTech, girls—despite putting in a good chunk of the work—weren’t getting their fair representation,” Lam said. “I thought that creating Rx2 would give girls an opportunity to make big decisions and to work on technical stuff without being afraid of making mistakes.”
Their car, named Amaterasu, is a replica of the Mazda 787B, a winner of the international 24 Hours of Le Mans race. The team spent a year building and preparing the car, starting from August 2025 and completing the car mid-July. On average, they met for 20 hours a week.
The challenge began with three days of scrutineering, or safety testing, before judges cleared them to race. However, on the first day of driving, Amaterasu’s motor began overheating, losing time off-road. The team’s electrical unit spent an hour adding a fan and an air duct, upping speed the next day to make up the 120 miles they had lost.
“It was a lot of endurance,” lead of operations senior Julie Lee said. “I think it’s very fun because not many other schools do what we do and build an actual car, but when you’re in Texas, there are so many other teams who went through a similar experience as you.”
Rx2 values R.A.C.E.R.: representation, ambition, community, empowerment and revolution. Offering hands-on STEM opportunities for high school girls, they strive to raise awareness about modern solutions for greenhouse gas reductions and actively challenge the idea of a “typical” solar car team.
“I believe us being all girls definitely helped with team chemistry, and bonding with everyone came naturally,” sophomore Amelia Lau said. “I love that I get to collaborate with girls who share the same passion for engineering as I do.”