F1 in Schools Singapore

Dundalk Grammar School F1 in Schools team awarded 8^th position in the World!

There was nail-biting tension in the air at the F1 in Schools World Finals Singapore 2010 which was supported by LG at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Over the course of the three days 25 teams, totalling over 120 students, were brought together in the sunshine of Singapore for the biggest challenge of their lives to date, competing for the coveted automotive and motorsport engineering university scholarships to City University, London and the prestigious Bernie Ecclestone World Champions trophy.

Govannon Racing, F1 in Schools Irish National Champions achieved 8^th position in the F1 in Schools World Finals which were held on the 29^th September in Singapore. The Formula One in Schools team competed against twenty one countries from around the world. “This is a great result for the school, Ireland and the town of Dundalk”, stated Scott Nowell, ICT and F1 in Schools co-ordinator.

Govannon Racing recorded the fastest time of the 2010 World Finals. Their car was also the third fastest since the competition began over ten years ago and was they set the fastest car time recorded under the new F1 in Schools 2010 World Finals.  This was achieved by the team engineers designing a collimator which helped to propel the model F1 car down the 20 metre track at a speed of 1.056 seconds. We would like to thank all our sponsors (Dundalk Grammar School, Fyffes, Cti Business Solutions, Harvey Norman, Print Express, Anchor Tours, Irish Chamber of Commerce Singapore, Seagate computers, Dundalk Town Council, Geco Loco.com, BridgeStone Tyres, Institute of Technology Blanchardstown, neelb.org.uk and ICS – Irish Computer Society), for their support throughout the competition and without whom we would not have been able to compete in Singapore.

Govannon Racing was awarded with the trophy for the ‘Best Pit Display’ in the competition and as a result they were invited to the Scuderia Toro Rosso team pits on the Singapore track. They spent over one and a half hours with the Formula One team and were introduced to the team drivers and technical engineer.

On winning this award Team Manager, Michael O'Neill said “We are thrilled with this award as we’ve spent hundreds of hours working on this project, so we are delighted to have all our efforts recognised with this award. It was an honour to be part of this global competition and we have learned so much by participating in it. We had lots of fun at all the stages of the competition and we got to learn about physics, aerodynamics, design, manufacturing, branding, graphics, sponsorship, marketing, leadership, teamwork, media skills and financial strategy. It was a very proud feeling for our team to step up on the World stage to accept our award of “Best Pit Display”.

We would like to thank our teachers, Scott Nowell and Paul Murphy for mentoring us throughout the competition and for motivating us when we needed it most. Thanks for your support and for the memories we’ll keep forever in our minds.

Govannon Racing team members are: Michael O’Neill (Team Manager), Jack Farrell (Manufacturing Engineer), Niall Carroll (Resource Manager), Steven Butterly (Design Engineer), Conor Clarke (Design Engineer) and Keith Mc Connon (Marketing & Advertising Manager). 

Photographs supplied and copyrighted by Edina Valentova. Permission granted by photographer if name shown under photographs.

Press release ends...