A GROUP of sixth form students are on the fast track to success in a national competition.
The four students from Connah’s Quay High School are through to the F1 in Schools UK national finals after winning the North Wales regional finals.
The competition requires teams of students to design, build and race their own miniature Formula One cars against other teams accross the country.
Falcon F1 Team won first place in the F1 class trophy, best engineering award and fastest F1 car award in the North Wales final held at Bangor University.
eam members David Clark, Nathan Eyton, Rhys Nimmo and George Cox managed to fire their car down a 20m track in just 1.6 seconds.
The British final is to be held at the Big Bang fair at ExCel, London on March 15 and 16 and the winners will be given the chance to represent their country in the world finals in Austin, Texas.
Teacher Christopher Jennings, who supervised the project, said: “This is a once in a life time opportunity for everyone and we have been working towards this for about eight years.
“There are 30 teams from all different regions competing at the nationals which is a very prestigious event.”
If they make it through to the world finals, they will compete in November on the F1 track in Austin against teams from 34 other countries.
Mr Jennings said: “Four years ago we finished fourth in the nationals, and this team is far better and confidence levels are higher.
“So the chances are good because the passion is there.
“It takes a huge amount of man hours outside school time to get to this level, and the reason they do it is because they love it.”
The cars at the annual competition are are built of balsa wood and are powered by a compressed air cylinder.
Teams are required to make a written and verbal presentation to judges as well as racing in the national competition.
Andrew Denford, founder and chairman of F1 in Schools, said: “We’re experiencing significant growth in the schools entering the challenge this season and the standards are extremely high.”