NYSFers Outpace the World:
Australian team crowned F1 champions
The Pentagliders team from Brooks High School, Tasmania, took top honours at the seventh F1 in Schools World Finals event in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday 21 September 2011.
Two of team are National Youth Science Forum participants, [Tristan McCarthy –January 2011 and Jack Ball –January 2012] .
The educational initiative sees teams of students researching, designing, testing, manufacturing and racing miniature Formula One cars. The F1 in Schools Technology Challenge is contested in 34 countries around the world, with 17,000 students participating in the competition.
The Pentagliders team (18-year-olds Tristan McCarthy, Amy Winter and Nathan Clark, with Jack Ball, 17) fought off intense competition in the global student technology challenge to beat 22 teams from Australasia, Europe, Asia, Africa, America and the Middle East.
Tristan is pictured on the left with Jack next to him.
As well as claiming the Bernie Ecclestone World Champions trophy, the winners win coveted Automotive and Motorsport Engineering degree scholarships at City University London.
"It hasn't sunk in yet, we're just blown away to have won," said team manager Winter. "I've been working towards this for five years and Pentagliders has been a team for over two years. It's taken us that long to win the Australian National Finals, then we come here and win it on our first attempt, unbelievable!
"I think we're a special team as we're not just in it for ourselves, but for others as well. We mentor young students entering F1 in Schools and help them with their cars. It's great that a small team from a small place like Tasmania can show people that we can achieve great success. Just because we're from a small places doesn't mean we can't do big things."
The team also won the fastest car award, recording a time of 1.084 seconds, and the best-engineered car award en route to taking the title.
F1 in Schools – Australia is an initiative of Re-Engineering Australia Foundation (REA). Students design and build miniature F1 racing cars.
REA is a not-for-profit organisation with committed partners providing challenging educational programs in engineering and design through action-learning of science, maths and technology.