These student teams design, test, build and race miniature Formula One cars that rocket down tracks at speeds that move middle-aged adults to say things like "Wow."
But you won't spot a billboard in the Roanoke Valley celebrating the students' national championships.
Thus, the following comparison, however cliched, merits mention.
If these students had won national titles in a school sport and subsequently participated in world competitions in Australia and Malaysia, they'd boast rabid fans, booster clubs and reap saturation news coverage.
As it is, they've received less ink than a small rubber stamp and significantly less broadcast time than Oops, the Mill Mountain Zoo's one-time escapee macaque.
"That's really frustrating," said Josh Pecaric, 14, an eighth-grader at James Madison Middle School in Roanoke.
He is a participant in "F1 in Schools," an international competition, and member of the 2008 national championship team for middle schools.
Other members of the Pyrrhogaster team are Joey Johnson, Ben Gruver and Thomas Turner, all 14 years old.
Two national championship teams from Roanoke schools -- Pyrrhogaster and Inferno -- won slots to compete in June at the 2009 world championship in London. They plan to attend if the necessary funds, about $50,000, can be raised.
"Cynops pyrrhogaster" is the Latin name for the Japanese fire belly newt. A similar newt is native to China.
Speaking of China
Studies conclude that American students lag far behind their peers in places such as China and India, emerging market countries that are churning out engineers.
Joey said members of the James Madison team proudly represent the nation at international competitions.
"We can show kids from other countries that we are not slack, that we can do this and we will," he said.
Established in 1999 in the United Kingdom, the nonprofit F1 in Schools initiative is intended to raise the profile of engineering as a career option and to serve as a hands-on complement to engineering instruction.
Teams of three to six students, ages 9 to 19, design and build miniature Formula One racing cars out of balsa wood. Carbon dioxide powers the cars. Teams race them at regional, national and world competitions.
Teachers Bill Birdlebough of Breckinridge Middle School and Chris Morris of James Madison volunteer time to oversee the local F1 in Schools teams. Students work after school and on weekends.
Birdlebough estimates it takes about 300 hours to transform a block of balsa into a top-notch car.
Along the way, students learn to use computer-aided design, a computer-driven router, a $50,000 software program that provides a virtual wind tunnel to help tweak a design's aerodynamics, computer-aided manufacturing and other tools.
The total worth of the equipment and software?
Close to $250,000, but sponsorships and educational partnerships have covered most of those costs, Birdlebough said.
Dan Horine is an instructor of advanced technology in mechatronics at Virginia Western Community College, a sponsor for the Roanoke teams. The field of mechatronics combines mechanical, electronic and software engineering to help design sophisticated manufacturing systems.
"What's great about the F1 in Schools program is that students are exposed to technologies that will make the U.S. more competitive in a global economy," Horine said.
London or bust
A modern Formula One car is a single-seat, open-cockpit, open-wheel race car with advanced aerodynamic design.
For the student-designed F1 cars, a carbon dioxide cartridge such as those used in an air pistol propel the models.
The F1 in Schools world speed record is 1.02 seconds over a distance of 20 meters, or a bit more than 65 feet. The Roanoke teams' fastest time to date is 1.054 seconds.
To qualify for the London championship, Pyrrhogaster took first place among middle schools at the 2008 national competition in Orlando, Fla., and Inferno took first place among high schools.
A James Madison team also won the 2007 national championship. A team from Breckinridge Middle School took the prize in 2006.
Members of the Inferno team are Patrick Doherty, 17; Burgin Collis, 16; and Haley Harry, 15. The Inferno team includes students from both Patrick Henry and William Fleming high schools.
If the teams get to London, they'll attend a real Formula One race at the Silverstone track about 80 miles from the city.
Harry and Collis are among a comparatively small number of girls competing in F1 in Schools.
Collis, who handles her team's reaction time starts, said the girls' minority status can be a plus.
"This guy at nationals was kind of cocky," Collis recalled. "He wished me good luck and said, 'You'll need it.'"
It was fun to beat him, she said.
David Carson, chairman of the Roanoke School Board, attended a teams demonstration Thursday at James Madison.
Of the F1 program, he said, "It's incredible. It's awe-inspiring."
And several of the students actually are considering engineering careers.
Horine said the city teams' success should be widely celebrated.
"We have students representing the U.S. who are participating in an international contest and no one knows about it," he said. "We should be screaming it from the mountaintops."