Five students from Kyabram P-12 College will represent the school on the world stage as part of the F1 in Schools program.At a Kyabram school yesterday five students huddled around a race track.Carefully, they placed a miniature Formula 1 car, measuring less than 15cm, on the 20m track.Powered by CO2 cannisters, the balsa wood car took a little more than one second to fly to the other end.The team have spent more than 18 months and countless hours planning, designing and perfecting the car and in six months’ time they will race it on a similar track halfway across the world.Technology teacher Dale Roberts said the students would represent Kyabram P-12 College at the world finals of the F1 in Schools program in Abu Dhabi in October.The Kyabram team, Raindrop Racing, would join Trinity Grammar School to form Team Spectra, ‘‘one of the three teams representing Team Australia’’ Mr Roberts said.He said the Kyabram team won the Victorian state finals of the competition and competed in the national finals before beginning its campaign for the world championships.Mr Roberts said the students had been hard at work on their project, which not only included engineering and designing the car, but also gaining sponsorship, public speaking and presenting a portfolio of work to judges.
Team manager Elly Schumann said she became interested in the program after another school went to Kyabram to show the students their cars. Elly said the cars, which travel at a speed of around 85km/h, took from 1.08 to 1.3 sec to complete the race, with the world record at just under one second.
‘‘There’s so much I’ve learned and I’m not even an engineer,’’ the 16-year old said. ‘‘I’ve definitely realised the other pathways I could take in my career.’’
The team are now fundraising to meet their goal of $30000 to get them to the finals.
Mr Roberts said a goods and services auction in support of the team would take place at the school at 7pm on Saturday, July 21.
Tickets to the auction are $20 for adults or $10 for students and can be purchased from the school reception or by phoning 0488522065.
