Victoria and Queensland, the big winners at the
F1 in Schools™2010 Australian Grand Prix...
Australia's second biggest F1 event!

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Basilisk Performance, from Ballarat's Sebastopol College in regional Victoria, and Nitro Monkeys, from Pine Rivers State High School in Brisbane, are the new Professional and Apprentice Class Australian National Champions of the F1 in Schools™ Technology Challenge.

After an intense day of tight competition, being judged in engineering design, innovation, marketing, technical folio, public speaking and car track speed...the teenagers outpointed 23 other state and territory champion teams.

I addition to this event report, you can check out photos, video and results table at www.f1inschools.org.au

The event was held at the Automotive Centre of Excellence, Kangan Institute, in Melbourne's Docklands area, following a series of knockout rounds across the nation in the latter part of 2009. The F1 in Schools™ 2010 Australian Grand Prix was officially launched by the Honourable Steve Herbert, Parliamentary Secretary for Education in Victoria, and via a pre-recorded video from REA Patron Dr Peter Farrell, Chairman and CEO of ResMed Corporation. The Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE) venue provided great synergy for this exciting event with several floors of automotive body repair workshops and large spray booths. Teams stayed at the brand new Travelodge Hotel a few streets away.

As part of the victory spoils, Basilisk Performance won a VIP visit to the Williams F1 pit garage at the 2010 FORMULA ONE™ QANTAS Australian Grand Prix. Nitro Monkeys were hosted as VIP's at the garage of Force India F1. These visits were facilitated by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) through their Schools Program which also included offering free admission to the Grand Prix for all National Final participants. Other special prizes included Mark Webber Grandstand tickets and VIP Pit Lane walk just prior to race start! The AGPC constructed an inflatable "bubble pavilion" alongside the Albert Park circuit called the 'F1 Experience' to house an F1 in Schools™ race track, where REA students conducted races for the general public and visiting schools.

The 8 winning students and their teachers now form Re-Engineering Australia Foundation's 'Team Australia 2010' which will represent our nation at the F1 in Schools™ 2010 World Championships being held in conjunction with the 2010 FORMULA ONE™ Singtel Singapore Grand Prix in September. Basilisk Performance and Nitro Monkeys hope to improve on Team Australia 2008 (2nd & 3rd in the world) and Team Australia 2009 (2nd, 3rd, 4th).

The standard of this year's competition was very high - it gets higher every year - and the 30 judges (led by Chair of Judges, Judge Geoff Adams from the Queensland Government), had a very full day reviewing the cars, folios, pit displays and verbal presentations, against the 11 assessment categories criteria. REA extends a huge thank you to all members of the Judging Panel who did a superb job, giving up their work time and in many cases travelling long distances to contribute.

A number of REA F1 in Schools™ "graduates" helped in the running of the event. Alex Nunn and Doug Maddock, two members of the 2006 F1 in Schools™ World Champion team "The Stingers" patrolled the venue with a wireless microphone and SquizzBiz - a remote video camera sending images to the worldwide webcast organised by technology partner, Cisco WebEx. Over 800 people visited the WebEx Webcast pages during the competition and awards ceremony! Alistair Smith - second in the world twice - and Daniel Messina (Eclipse Racing) supervised the race track whilst Matt Cruickshank (Impulse F1) - third in the world in Malaysia gave a running commentary of developments.

REA had staged an energetic pre-event PR campaign and the ABC's New Inventors sent along a camera crew which spent hours interviewing teams and recording the competition and awards ceremony. Keep watching New Inventors to see this story in coming episodes.

The Vast Motion Grand Prix Lunch provided a welcome "refuelling session" for everyone. Vast Motion is a Canberra engineering company which collaborated with Redline Racing a year ago to develop an accelerometer small enough to fit inside the canister housing of an F1 in Schools™ car in front of the CO2 cartridge. This tiny device which records speed and G forces helped Redline Racing win the international fastest car award at the 2009 World Championships. The company demonstrated its new blue-tooth version on the race track and we learned that F1 in Schools™ cars exceed 80 km/h, and can experience as much as 11 G's. The wheels revolve at 11,000 RPM! Go to vastmotion.com.au to check it out and see how your team can use this technology.

Judging paused at the end of the day for the RMIT Grand Prix Dinner followed by a presentation by Professor Simon Watkins outlining the Formula SAE competition to an enthralled audience. This presentation included in-car footage of their all-conquering open wheeler powered by a motorbike engine. A number of students said they plan to go to uni' and get involved in the Formula SAE program. Check out www.fsae.rmit.edu.au for more details.

Day Two saw the teams head over to the F1 Experience pavilion at Albert Park for the AGPC Sprint Races. This provided the thousands of visiting school children with a great spectacle and it resulted in three teams standing on the podium and being congratulated by AGPC representative, Jennifer Lambert.

Tasmania's Pentagliders won the AGPC Sprint Races with a handicap time of 1.327 seconds with the youngest team at the F1 in Schools Australia Grand Prix, Raging Rhinos from Melbourne runners up (1.365) and Sydney team, TRS, coming in third (1.380) with teacher Lee Miller saying that every time their car went on the track it was faster. Times were displayed on a magnetic Top Gear-type vertical scoreboard, with Matt C doing a great job again as our energetic MC. The crowds were four or five deep on the REA track at times! These race scores did not contribute to the overall National Final results.

Then it came to Friday night, the Awards Ceremony, back at the Automotive Centre of Excellence. The room was packed with teams, teachers, parents, friends and VIP guests. Master of Ceremonies was Craig Hingston, from REA, who led a fast-paced presentation which was webcast worldwide.

The event began with REA Founder and Chairman Michael Myers announcing the winner of his perpetual Founders (No One Said We Couldn't) Award. This was presented to Mark Presling, a teacher from Noosa District State High School in Queensland. Mark has been tirelessly involved in the F1 in Schools™ program for a number of years. One of his teams was three times runner-up at the National Finals and then, in 2009, AC Racing, a collaboration between Noosa and Canada, went to London and came third in the world and won the International Collaboration Team Championship. Mark was in attendance as a judge and taken completely by surprise by the announcement.

Allan Whittome, winner of the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science - Teaching in Primary Schools, came up to the stage and was interviewed about his unique approach to teaching. Allan, a teacher from Western Australia, believes that science should be experienced and lived daily, not just taught from a book or in the classroom alone. He had embarked on a number of programs to stimulate his students - including F1 in Schools™ - and caught the attention of the PM!

Allan was also a Judge, meeting teachers and the teams. One person instrumental in having Allan be a part of the F1 in Schools™ program, the chairman of the REA WA Steering Committee, Arun D'Souza, was a proud supporter in the crowd.

With Allan's passion for the teaching of Science it was appropriate that he assist with the presentation of medallions and framed certificates. The first teams to be called to the front were...

Speedalicious, an all girl team from Gymea Technology High School in Sydney, complete with a human mascot in fireproof race suit and full face race helmet, and Redhawk Racing, from Pine Rivers State High School, Brisbane. Both teams' were winners of the Best Team Marketing Award.

Starting a new tradition, REA chose to have a past student present an award. The next category was the AGPC Fastest Car Award and as a holder of the 2009 Fastest Car in the World Award as well as the previous Australian Fastest Car Award it made perfect sense for Alistair Smith of Redline Racing to sash the new recipients. Winners of the perpetual AGPC trophy, with a sizzling time of 1.019 seconds, were NSW's Speedalicious - proving that girls can match it with the boys! The Professional class winners were Basilisk Performance with 1.049 seconds. It is worth noting that the Speedalicious time beat the official world record set by Northern Ireland of 1.020. Both teams were quicker than the 1.055 which Alistair's car ran in London.

Jürgen W. Schneider, Regional General Manager of the Siemens multinational corporation, appropriately presented the Innovation Award. The Apprentice category went to The CAR Factor, from Gilgandra High School in country NSW, and the Professional category was won by Pentagliders, Brooks High School, Tasmania.

Founders Award winner Mark Presling fittingly presented the Cisco WebEx Outstanding Collaboration Award. For the third year in a row Trinity Christian School, from Canberra, won an award with Firefly Racing announced as Apprentice Class winners. Professional Class winners were TRS from Ashcroft High School in Sydney.

The Defence Materiel Organisation - National Sponsor of REA - were represented by a huge team of judges and officials. One VIP guest was Grant Medbury, the Director General of the Land Engineering Agency, Land Systems Division, who oversees nearly 500 engineers and technicians. He came to the stage to present the DMO Best Engineered and Outright Championship Awards.

Nitro Monkeys, Pine Rivers State High School and Carbon Racing, from Trinity Grammar, Kew in Melbourne, picked up the honours for having the Best Engineered Designs. One member of the Nitro Monkeys is the grandson of multiple National Drag Racing Champion, Victor Bray.

There was a hush of expectancy as the National Runner-Up teams were announced. In the Apprentice Class, after just one year in the competition, Speedalicious from Gymea Technology High School NSW, with an average age of just 14, a hat trick of awards for 2010! In the Professional Class, Queenslander's Redhawk Racing from Pine Rivers State High School.

Following a video message from patron, Dr Peter Farrell, the F1 in Schools™ 2010 Australian Grand Prix National Champions were announced and greeted by DMO's Grant Medbury. Apprentice Class Champions - Nitro Monkeys, Pine Rivers State High School QLD. Professional Class, Basilisk Performance, Sebastopol College VIC.

New South Wales picked up five category awards with Queensland teams, sponsored by the Queensland Government winning four including Apprentice Class National Champions.

The F1 in Schools™ 2010 Australian Grand Prix was sponsored by: Defence Materiel Organisation - National Sponsor of the REA Foundation; Automotive Centre of Excellence, Kangan Institute; Cisco WebEx; Queensland Government - Create It. Make It. Live It; Australian Grand Prix Corporation; Victoria University; RMIT; Vast Motion; Downer EDI; Epson; and Biante Model Cars. It was also promoted via Engineers Australia's "Make It So" national campaign which is focused on attracting more people to career paths in engineering. Special thanks to Dave Howes, from the London office of the global F1 in Schools™ Technology Challenge, who worked at the ACE venue and circuit, and Eddie Rykenberg who made the beautiful medallions. Thanks also to the many judges who gave up a day of work and who travelled interstate to take part. The DMO, GKN Aerospace and Royal Australian Navy supplied the bulk of the panel.

The weekend arrived and the teams headed over to the Albert Park F1 circuit. They enjoyed a variety of activities including watching the races, visiting the pits of the V8Supercars, GT Championship, Formula Ford and Mini Challenge, and demonstrating their skills on the REA race track in the F1 Experience pavilion. Speedalicious - as a part of their AGPC Fastest Car trophy victory, were treated to a VIP pit walk and had a great time meeting F1 race team members and posing in the pit garages. The adventure concluded with the actual 2010 FORMULA ONE™ QANTAS Australian Grand Prix race. Students watched from the grandstand as Australia's Mark Webber gave his all to try and score a podium finish.

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This information was last updated Wednesday, 31 March 2010