Car designers are among the fastest

Newton Moore Senior High School’s F1 in Schools team returned from Melbourne last month with mixed emotions after a string of penalties cost them a top position.

The competition required students from all over Australia to design, construct and develop their own CO2 dragsters out of balsa wood and race them down a 20m track.

Christian Walker, Byran Billett, Torv Cassleton and Seth Bursill, collectively known as La Vitesse, finished 13th overall despite laying down some of the fastest times.

“We had some regulation issues, and added to the strange way of marking our times by removing our top and bottom speeds, we went from first or second to 13th which was a big hit to the team,” team manager Seth said.

The boys said they learnt a lot from the experience in their respective fields including how to work better as a team.

“We learnt how to become a team, Seth learnt how to become a better leader and we all learnt how to chip in more compared to States,” manufacturing engineer Byran said.

“I asked a couple of teams who did really well what they used for their drawings, what programs they used and what they did to make their car so good.”

While in Melbourne the group was treated to a VIP experience at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park which included guided tours of the pits and access to all the prime spectator points.

With a new found fire in their bellies and determination to succeed, La Vitesse announced its intention to return to the State titles with a faster and sleeker car.