Meet Team Velox

Team Velox is Stuyvesant's STEM Racing team. We placed 11th of 39 at Nationals in our first season. Here's who we are and how we plan to reach World Finals.

We planned our first club meeting of the season for about 10 people, and nearly 30 showed up.

We didn't change a thing. We walked everyone through what STEM Racing is, how our first season went, and how the club works. But one surprise stuck with us. One of our new members turned out to be friends with someone who raced at World Finals for Italy.

World Finals is the goal we're chasing this season, and suddenly it felt only one friend away.

This post is our starting line. It covers who we are, how last season went, and what it'll take to get where we want to go.

Key takeaways

• We're Team Velox, six students at Stuyvesant High School in New York who design and build a CO2-powered race car.

• In our first season, on a budget of about $2,000, we placed 11th of 39 at the US National Finals.

• The top 3 teams at the 2027 National Finals qualify for World Finals, and that's our goal.

• This blog follows the season, one lesson at a time.

Who is Team Velox?

Team Velox is the STEM Racing team at Stuyvesant High School, competing in the Professional Class of STEM Racing USA. Stuyvesant is one of New York City's Specialized High Schools. Admission is decided by an entrance exam called the SHSAT (NYC Public Schools). We started the team in 2025. Our name comes from the Latin word for velocity, and our motto is "Velocity is virtue."

STEM Racing is an international competition endorsed by Formula 1. It was called F1 in Schools until Formula 1 announced the new name in December 2024 (Off The Track). Teams design small cars powered by a CO2 cartridge and race them down a 20 meter track (Wikipedia). If you're new to it, our post What Is STEM Racing? explains the basics.

Our competing team has six people:

• Jiho Lee, Lead Engineer.

• Angus Leung, Design and Testing Engineer.

• Tse Jing Lim, Manufacturing Engineer.

• Junseo Lee, Team Manager.

• Eason Chen, Marketing Manager.

• Elliot Widmann, Graphic Designer.

We don't have sub-teams, so all three engineers design, test, and manufacture. The other three run the team like a small company. That means work such as the portfolio, our partners, and the brand.

How did our first season go?

We placed 11th out of 39 teams at the 2025-26 US National Finals. It was our first season, and we did it on a budget of about $2,000.

At regionals, we won three awards: Best Team in the East, Best Marketing, and Best Project Management.

None of that came easily, because we had to learn almost everything from scratch, from CAD software to sponsorship emails. We also learned some things the hard way. Late in the season, our Instagram slowed to one post every 10 to 14 days because it depended on one person. This year, we built systems so that no single person holds everything up, and this blog is one of them.

What does a STEM Racing season look like?

A STEM Racing season runs from a fall build to winter regionals, then Nationals in the spring. The car is only one part of the competition. STEM Racing USA & Canada is open to students ages 9 to 19. Teams compete on and off the track, through design portfolios, pit displays, and presentations (PT Autosport, April 2025). That's why our marketing and project management awards mattered so much to us.

Here's our 2026-27 season:

Our car is CO2-powered, and every part of it is built to a 55-page technical regulation. We shape it in Fusion 360 and test it in simulation with tools such as Ansys and SimScale before anything gets cut. Then we make the parts ourselves with in-house 3D printing and CNC machining.

Why World Finals, and what will it take?

The top 3 teams at the US National Finals qualify for World Finals. Last season we finished 11th, and closing that gap is the whole point of this season.

We know a few things will have to change. Our engineers are working on this year's car right now, and we'll share what they change and why as it happens. On the business side, we're building a new pit display, and we've replaced our old sponsor tiers with named partner roles. Each role is built around what a partner actually wants from working with us.

We're also growing: new members join our second team, which builds its own car, and the strongest members move up. Nobody needs CAD experience to start, because we teach it during the first month. If you're a Stuyvesant student, you can read more on our club page.

How can you follow along?

This blog will follow our season as it happens, including the ordinary days and not just the big results. For example, you'll read about a print that snaps, a simulation that surprises us, or a late night finishing the portfolio. Every post will teach one real thing.

Here's what's coming next:

1. Who does what on a STEM Racing team. All six of us explain our jobs, and what we learned doing them.

2. What our first season taught us, on about $2,000. Where the money actually went.

3. How we test a race car be fore we build it. Drag, simulation, and why we design on a screen first.

Follow the season

Our first season ended 11th of 39. This one starts with a room nearly three times fuller than we planned. The goal feels closer than it did a month ago.

The best way to follow along is Instagram, where we share every new blog post along with the build as it happens.

Follow the season on Instagram: @teamvelox_official

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About the author: Eason Chen is the Marketing Manager of Team Velox at Stuyvesant High School. He runs the team's marketing, partnerships, and this blog. To contact the team, email team.projectvelox@gmail.com.