Celebrating success in STEM Racing

STEM Racing, formerly known as F1 in Schools, provides pupils with an exciting opportunity to combine engineering, creativity and teamwork within a global competition, and eight King’s School pupils recently took their racing cars to the regional finals in Manchester. 

Working in self-managed teams to design, manufacture and race a high-performance model car to demanding regulations, pupils are also tasked with developing a brand identity, securing sponsorship and presenting their journey to industry judges.

The regional finals of this year’s competition were held on Thursday, 26 February at the University of Greater Manchester where King’s was represented by two enthusiastic teams; Project Blitz and Halo Racing. 

Project Blitz competed in the Professional Class and, as the youngest team in the category, produced a superb performance, finishing with the sixth-fastest car overall against older and more experienced competitors. Their professionalism, resilience and ambition were evident throughout, and they have already confirmed that they will return next year determined to progress even further. Congratulations to Third Year pupils Harry, Avyutka, Sam and Oscar.

Halo Racing delivered a truly exceptional performance in the Entry Class. The team comprised of Shells pupils Ben, William, Louis and Edward, all of whom were competing for the first time. Halo Racing won the prestigious Fastest Car award and were also crowned overall Entry Class Regional Champions. In addition, they received nominations for Team Identity, Sponsorship and Marketing, as well as the Judges’ Choice Award. There is no national final for Entry Class, but Halo Racing are already looking forward to competing next year and they are ready for the tougher challenge of Development Class. 

The teams were accompanied to Manchester by Head of DT, Richard Curtis, who congratulated the teams on their success: “We are incredibly proud of all our STEM Racing pupils.

“Their achievements reflect not only technical skill, but confidence, collaboration and a passion for learning that extends far beyond the classroom.

“STEM Racing is a busy, thriving club in Senior School and I have enjoyed seeing these two teams embrace all elements of the competition. They have learned so many skills relevant to engineering and motorsport,  buy also developed skills in marketing, business, graphic design and many more.”

Many thanks to the sponsors who have supported both teams in a number of invaluable ways:

• Chelma Graphics for Halo Racing’s enterprise materials, and reduced-price printing
• Uniformity Clothing for providing personalised t-shirts
• BMW Halliwell Jones for providing monitors and other items to Project Blitz as part of a longstanding partnership with the team

STEM Racing Club takes place every Tuesday and Friday lunchtime. Senior School pupils can sign up on SOCS.

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