FOUR Year nine Canterbury College students will showcase their formula one skills on the national stage next month.
The Bolt Racing team of Casey Milne, Benjamin Newman, Charlie Deane and Kian O’Keefe are travelling to Launceston for national championships after winning six award categories at the state level Formula One Schools Competition at QUT in October last year.
Over the last three years the group have represented Canterbury College at a regional and state level, manufacturing and designing miniature formula one car models from light materials such as foam or balsa.
Students go through a complex process consisting of 3D printing, sanding, cutting, painting, wheel manufacturing, applying ball bearings and more to create their final product over a number of weeks.
Each group member completes their designated role with Benjamin Newman as team leader, Kian O’Keefe as design and performance engineer, Charlie Deane manufacturing and social media manager and Casey Milne as marketing and graphics manager.
Marketing and graphics manager of the team, Casey Milne, said the formula one models, powered by a carbon dioxide canister could travel even faster than the real thing.
“These cars can get from zero to 80km/h in under a second which is way faster than a real formula one car, they are really fast and really lightweight,” he said.
“You have to hook it up to a fishing line to keep it on the track, otherwise these will go airborne.”
The Bolt Racing team’s state level car was a creation culminated from years of experience and improvement from previous technical mistakes and experimentation.
Casey said the car taken to state championships with customised lightning bolt wheels was a final product the whole team was proud of.
“You can see the improvement in quality over the years...it comes down to innovation and design you need to be different and unique to create a better car,” he said.
“There are always improvements we can make and with nationals we will make the car better again.”
“We are definitely in the running for an innovation award because there is no other team that has wheels like ours.”
The nationals competition will begin at the Launceston Conference Centre on March 4 and concludes on March 8 with an awards presentation.
Mathematics and technology teacher Yvette O'Keefe has overseen the group’s progress over the years and said she was proud to see how far they have come.
“It has been wonderful to watch these students progress from their first car designs and initial presentations at regionals to now, where they are presenting a fifth generation car with a variety of innovative design aspects and a technical presentation that shows their mature and developed understanding of all the behind the scenes aspects involved in the F1 in Schools Competition,” she said.
“They’re a talented group of young people who have worked really hard to achieve their position in the competition and I wish them the very best for Tasmania.”
