Teams from Engadine High School competing in this year’s international F1 in Schools Challenge have been invited to meet one of V8 Supercars’ top performing teams from 2014, Volvo Polestar GRM (now known as Wilson Security Racing GRM), this week at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The visit has been arranged by leading Australian property company, PAYCE, a strong supporter of Australian motor racing and a corporate sponsor in 2015 of both the school’s F1 teams and the GRM race team.
PAYCE Managing Director, Brian Boyd said his company was thrilled to bring the two groups together and expose the students to one of the most experienced race teams in the sport.
“The timing is perfect as PAYCE recently signed, along with Wilson Security, as major sponsors for this year’s season. With the team coming to Sydney for testing, we thought it a great opportunity for the students to gain some first-hand experience of how a professional team operates at the track,” he said.
‘’Garry Rogers from GRM enthusiastically agreed to set aside some time to give the students a tour of his team’s pit and introduce them to all the members of his crew, including drivers Scott McLaughlin and David Wall.”
Engadine High School’s teacher, Ben Leffley said his students were ‘over the moon’ at the prospect of getting so close to a highly competitive and professional racing team.
“I am confident we will pick up some pointers to improve our chances in this year’s challenge and very grateful to PAYCE for arranging the visit,” he said.
Engadine High School is one of the best performing Australian schools in the competition, winning the National titles in 2012 and 2013 and then going on to compete in the World Titles in Abu Dhabi and Texas, where they placed fourth and fifth respectively.
Garry Rogers said he welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the school’s chances in this year’s challenge.
“As their past performances show, these kids have a great deal of talent, drive and determination and it will be our pleasure to show them around, have them talk with the crew and offer our encouragement. They may well be the sports’ engineers, technicians, designers and team managers of tomorrow.”
PAYCE’s General Manager, Dominic Sullivan said his company was impressed by the talent and motivation of the Engadine High students, and their outstanding record of successes.
“We will look at other opportunities similar to the V8 Supercars visit to offer up to the school through the year,” he said.
About F1 in Schools Challenge
The F1 in Schools Challenge is an international competition open to high school students (boys and girls) around the world.
Over 30 countries currently compete in a range of classes based on age groups. Teams of three to five students from Years 7-12 use real world CAD/CAM technologies to design, test, build and race miniature gas-powered Formula 1 cars.
Winners of regional finals go on to the State finals then, if successful, progress to the National Titles with a chance to represent their country at the World Titles.
