Purdue’s All-Female Team Makes Racing History
In a historic first, an all-female team of Purdue University students raced into the record books by winning the evGrandPrix, a collegiate electric karting competition. Fueled by passion, perseverance, and a whole lot of zip ties, the team turned a bare chassis into a race-winning electric go-kart—and proved that motorsports has room for everyone.
Led by crew chief Sophia Hester and driver Tatum Langston, the team came together through a Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) course and a powerful partnership with Toyota. Despite setbacks on race day—from a thrown chain to last-minute throttle failure—the women rallied, fixed their kart, and roared from 12th on the grid to first across the finish line.
Named after Purdue alumna Elizabeth Miller, the kart Lady Elizabeth symbolizes grit, growth, and breaking barriers—both on the track and off. With guidance from industry mentors, support from their peers, and a shared love of learning, this team has done more than win a race—they’ve inspired a new generation of engineers, racers, and changemakers.
Transcript
00:00:00 -I love Grand Prix so much! I love the idea of building something and racing it and I think it's pretty cool. It's a team of all women, and we've got some incredible people there, incredible knowledge, knowhow, skills, and that's where I met our driver Tatum. -I have experience with karting through gas Grand Prix, so I did a lot of the cart setup, alignment, stuff like that, and teaching Sophia how to, because this is her first time ever working with karts. And she did a phenomenal job. Every single week she was asking like, "What can I help you with? What can I do?" And she was so so good about researching everything and going out on her own and learning everything she could about EV karts. -I'm not going to be afraid to ask questions. I'm not going to be afraid to dive right in and learn, because I want to be here,
00:00:54 and I want to be doing this. Figuring out, how do I put different things into different connectors; what are each of these wires doing; what are they talking to; and then designing them and putting them together so that they can fit on the motor controller. Learning how to tweak all these tiny little characteristics and make your kart go fast was very interesting, and a big big part of what we were doing. Race day, I have Tatum put her foot down and the kart does not go. She's like, "I have no throttle." and so we tighten some bolts, go go go! So we get it in and she's like, "Okay I have throttle now." And they're off! -So it was a little hectic. Unfortunately we had mechanical problems. We started 12th. We were like, you know, we'd be happy to work up to fifth. Honestly my goal was kind of to just survive the race! -And they're going around, and what was crazy was the amount of power we have,
00:01:47 ended up being even more than we expected. We were quick out there, running some of the fastest times that EVGrandPrix has seen. And we ended up just lapping people. And I was like "What?" And I mean, I expected us to be fast, I knew we weren't slow, but I was not expecting us to keep lapping people. So we're just going around and going around, she's in first at this point. I'm just like, I don't care what you do, don't crash, okay! i just need you to finish the race! So she's doing great and her lines were good, and I was really impressed with her. I was like, Tatum you've won! -I actually didn't realize I'd won. I thought I came in second, and I was really excited, because I was so fixated. I didn't realize yeah it was a little bit of a shock. -We're all ecstatic, I'm just jumping up and down, and my team is just like, we were all just insane! It was so cool to just have that experience. And then it dawned on me: we are the first all
00:02:43 women's team to have done this. And this is our first year! And that's a huge accomplishment. -If you're not experienced, don't be afraid to join a team. And join a team that will teach you everything, and you know kind of mentor you and be positive and supportive whenever you do mess up, because you know you will mess up stuff at times. But just find the right group of people to be on a team with. -One of the most important things about being a leader is giving them confidence. Because if you think you can do it, I think you can do it. And the second that you believe that you can do it, and that you're putting your passion to work, and you're not giving up, and you're now not doing something as a chore, but you're doing it because you're interested in it and you care about it, that was really really big.