Team Ignition Racing aim to represent Ireland at Worlds
HEADFORD F1 in Schools team Ignition Racing hope to do the double by winning the upcoming national finals of the competition, in a bid to represent Ireland at the World finals in Texas later this year.
Ignition Racing comprises four fifth year students from Presentation College, Headford. The students, from Headford, Ballinrobe and Shrule/Glencorrib, are current junior national champions.
Ryan Spencer, Mark Jennings, Ciarán Murphy and Mark Conway are driven by their goal of reaching and winning the World finals, which will be held in Texas after the summer holidays.
The competition is aimed at promoting STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) combined with Business and Marketing. Teams must produce a 1:20 scale model of an F1 car of their own design, which is powered by a single compressed gas canister. Strict rules and regulations must be followed.
Teams must also produce elements such as a pit display and a portfolio and deliver various presentations to judges on collaboration, learning, innovation and the all-important car.
Similar to the real F1 World, teams must acquire sponsors and show the judges that excellent return on investment has been given to sponsors in return for finance and services.
Ryan Spencer, team leader, explains that the national finals are the only thing standing between Ignition Racing and the Worlds. “The national finals, which will be held this Thursday, April 28, in the RDS, will show us if we can live up to our desire to become world champions. We have spent months preparing for this one day of racing and presenting.
“We have already seen some of our work pay off when we won the Best Engineered Car and the Best Verbal Presentation at the regional finals.”
Marketing manager Mark Conway added: “The support shown by businesses and organisations near and far has been excellent. The school has also certainly backed us, as well as our sponsors, Galway Natural Gas, McHale Engineering, Road Maintenance Services and Galway Property Services. Dolmen, a Dublin based product design company, have given us both financial backing and superb contacts in the industry. We would like to thank these businesses, our school and our teachers who continue to support us.”
See the team’s website - www.ignitionracingpch.com - and follow them on their epic journey on all major social networking sites, the links to which are also on their website.