Gold Coast Christian College was abuzz with activity last Wednesday when we hosted the Regional final for the F1 in Schools STEM Challenge™. Schools from the Gold Coast and the southside of Brisbane competed for top honours in three classes: Cadet, Development and Professional.

All teams participated in head-to-head racing of their miniature F1 racing cars including both timed laps down the straight track and reaction time competitions. Development and Professional teams were also judged on written portfolios, engineering portfolios, verbal presentations and car engineering.

The judges were industry professionals – engineers, advertising executives, business owners and entrepreneurs - who gave up their time to judge the entries against selected criteria and provide invaluable feedback to teams on future improvements. We were particularly fortunate to have Thomas Sugden, Design/Production Manager, from Shell V-Power Racing Team/DJR Team Penske and Romy Mayer, Performance and Data Engineer from Triple 8 Racing/Holden Racing Team conduct the engineering interviews. It was a fabulous opportunity for our students to talk with people who live and breathe motorsport.

The quality of entries from Gold Coast Christian College was outstanding with judges commenting on the top-notch skills on display. This resulted in a clean sweep of the pool by GCCC teams.

In Cadet Class, Absolute Zero Racing were crowned champions and Optic Zero were awarded Best Poster.

In Development Class, it was a 1-2-3 finish for Soar Racing, Magma Racing and Voltage Racing. The competition was so close and the quality so high that all three teams have made it through to the State Finals to be held in Brisbane in October.

While in Professional Class, Dark Matter Racing came first followed by Vivacity Racing in second place and Subzero Racing third place. Once again, Dark Matter Racing and Vivacity Racing have qualified for the State Finals.

All the teams from Gold Coast Christian College are to be congratulated for the hundreds of hours of work they have put in to preparing their car, portfolios and presentations for competition. The real-world learning that is taking place through the F1 in Schools STEM Challenge™ program is second to none.

Students have developed the ability to approach businesses in a professional manner to ask for sponsorship, worked with sponsors in developing the team’s products, learned how to manage tight deadlines and worked to technical criteria. They have been inspired to produce quality work and developed the confidence to present their finished products to panels of industry judges, as well as dealt with the realities of tight deadlines and quick turnarounds. The life skills team members have acquired will have positive cross-curricula benefits for the remainder of the schooling and into their post-school lives. Well done on all your hard work, teams!

We also want to thank all the teachers who gave up their time to mentor, critique and support teams through the F1 process. We are blessed to have staff who are so willing to invest into the lives of our students and assist them as they aim for excellence.

F1 in Schools STEM Challenge™ is an outstanding addition to the educational program at Gold Coast Christian College and we look forward to hearing how our teams fare in the upcoming State Finals.