21 März 2011 Von: F1 in Schools Australia

The “Pentagliders” from Brooks High School are the newest National Champions of the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge which involves over 30,000 high schoolers in designing, making and racing miniature F1 cars using space-age engineering and wind tunnel software - as used by NASA - and industry standard manufacturing equipment.

The four students represented Tasmania for the second year in a row in the F1 in Schools Australia Grand Prix and this time they beat all other 25 teams and earned their place in Team Australia 2011 which is bound for the F1 in Schools World Championships in Malaysia.

“Pentagliders” returned home with three major awards having also won the Australian Grand Prix Corporation Fastest Car Award with a sizzling 1.066 seconds down the race track and the award for Best Energy Efficient Design.

Pentagliders are the first Tasmanian team to become national champions in the program which began in 2004 and was brought to Australia by the not for profit organisation, Re Engineering Australia Foundation. F1 in Schools is the world's largest STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) program involving over 9,000,000 high school students in 33 nations.

Pentagliders, who are proudly supported by Rio Tinto, underwent two intense days of judging across 11 different criteria - from innovation and engineering to collaboration with industry and public speaking. They were competing against the nation's best 25 student F1 teams.

Lightspeed from Ballarat, are the new F1 in Schools Development Class National Champions, and with their 2011 Team Australia colleagues the Pentagliders from Tasmania will represent Australia at the F1inSchools World Final where Australia has had an enviable record of success over the past 7 years.

The F1 in Schools Australia Grand Prix was held at Sydney's Eastern Creek International Raceway and included rides in a rally car with four times Australian champion Neal Bates on the water-soaked skid pan...a tour of the Radical Australia workshop where they build exotic open seater race cars...and the chance to sit in historic open wheeler F1 cars built by the legendary Sir Jack Brabham.