A group of R.D. Parker Collegiate students are hoping to make a trip down to Austin,Texas in June to compete in the F1 in Schools competition, where student-designed miniature Formula One race cars go head to head to see who can traverse the track the fastest.
The students and their teacher advisor appeared before the School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) board of trustees Oct. 22 to seek permission to travel internationally.
The main body of the car is carved out of synthetic foam and the vehicle must weight at least 50 grams.
“They used to be made out of balsa wood but the F1 in Schools program switched to using a certain synthetic foam … because teams were using balsa wood from different sources and they had different densities so the blocks could be the exact same size but one could weigh 140 grams one could weigh 40 grams,” said Fotis Tsitsos, one of two current team members, along with Madyson Caldwell, who was part of the previous Spirit Wolves team that competed in the event in 2018, finishing with the sixth-fastest time.*
A team from RDPC did not compete last year because the three-day competition was moved to February, says RDPC drafting teacher Dave Caldwell, who recruited students for the team after he learned in September that the competition is being held in June again next year.
“Last year … there was just not enough time for us to put a team together,” said Dave Caldwell. “We probably put in about 15 hours of volunteer work already, extracurricular work, afternoons and on this past weekend. Then I realized, ‘Oh, I guess I need permission to travel internationally because the competition is in Austin,Texas.’”
Caldwell says he hopes to take what he learned last time and use it to the team’s advantage.
“It was eye opening as a teacher,” he says. "I learned a lot about how to score points. I hope actually when we go back we actually win more awards. There’s a new category for a spirit award there. I’m hoping that we will at least bring that one home if we get permission to go. It’s not just about design. It’s about everything from community involvement to your marketing to logo design to social media. It encompasses everything. It’s like you form your own business, so to speak.”
The 2018 Spirit Wolves team won the scrutineers’ award for having the car design that best conformed to the regulations, said Tsitsos.
“Out of every other team there in our league, our car followed the regulations and broke the least amount of rules,” he said. “It was, you could say, kind of the best-designed car.”
“Some teams will take a point deduction and break rules to have the car go faster,” says Dave Caldwell, who hopes to obtain more sponsorships earlier in the process this time around so that the team can concentrate on the car rather than on fundraising.
“We hope to have a running working car in the next month … a couple different versions of it and then have time to test it and get the fastest car possible. We have a track at the high school, the same track they use at the U.S. national championships, actually.”
The board will decide on the request for permission to travel internationally at a future meeting.
*This sentence has been changed from the original version, which mistakenly identified Fotis Tsitsos as the only member of the current team who was also part of the teamthat competed in 2018, omitting Madsyon Caldwell. The Thompson Citizen apologizes for the error.
