Two teams from Mayo won national awards at the Honda F1 in Schools Technology Challenge 2009 which took place this week in Griffith College in Dublin.
West Coast Racers, St Gerard’s College, Castlebar (Keith Derrig, Darren Brogan, Niall McCormick and Michael Healy ) won third place overall in the Senior Category and V-tech Racing from St Coleman’s College, Claremorris (Brian Clarke, Ciaran Finn, Stevie Donnellan, Luke Merrick, Cathal Hanley and Ronan Hennelly ) won second place overall in the Junior Category
Both teams competed against 150 second level schools in Ireland through an initial round to succeed to the regional and subsequently the national finals. All the participating teams have been perfecting their designs, portfolios and presentation skills since competing in the regional finals last February and March. Using Computer-Aided Design software to create virtual 3D models of their cars, the teams collaborated with Third Level F1 Make Centres on their manufacture. The colleges used their special milling equipment to convert the designs into real model F1 racers. The cars, measuring about 25cms and made of balsa wood, can reach scale speeds of 350kph.
In addition to racing head to head, the competing teams were judged on the quality of engineering, portfolio, resource management, marketing, graphic design and sponsorship activities and on a verbal presentation of their work.
