By Michael Commins – Mayo News – 14^th March 2007

TOP TEAM - Ice Fusion team members, from left: Keith Cawley, Bryan Carey, Andrew Finn, Alan Benson, Brian McDermott and John Parsons.

Six students from St Colman’s College cruised through the Regional Finals of the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge. They were placed second overall and now go through to the National Finals which will be held in Dublin on March 22.

Andrew Finn, John Parsons, Brian McDermott, Alan Benson, Bryan Carey and Keith Cawley, operating under the entry name of Ice Fusion, saw all their time and effort spent in designing, manufacturing and marketing the model car, pay dividends as they got the approval of the adjudicators.

The F1 in Schools Technology Challenge attracts more than 45,000 students across the world in a frenzied dash to design, build and ultimately race CO2- powered model F1 cars.

On the day, the St Colman’s model car made of Balsa wood won all of its four races, achieving an average speed of 1.4 seconds down a 25m track, thanks to Brian McDermott’s reaction times. In addition to their lap times, the teams are judged on their engineering, graphic design and resource management portfolios and on their verbal presentation of their work.

Brian McDermott, Marketing Manager, received sponsorship from CBE, Fireplace Madness, The Foodstore, Hillside Service Station and Phelan’s Motor Factors, and with this sponsorship he was able to get embroidered and personalised team jackets.

Andrew Finn’s managerial and communication skills stood the test as he laid out the presentation to the judges. The judges were impressed by the overall presentation and in particular, with John Parsons interview with Claremorris Community Radio and the extra computer monitor which the team used to present Bryan Carey’s powerpoint presentation.

Keith Cawley, Design Engineer, explained to the judges the design of the car and showed them the prototype designs before the final car was agreed upon.

Alan Benson, Webmaster, had enough skill and expertise to provide the best team in the West team with a top quality website – www.icefusionf1.com – well worthy of the best website award he picked up on the day.

Under the guidance of teacher and tutor, Gerry Lynch, the team members are working with renewed vigour and enthusiasm for the National Finals and are hoping to scoop the top prize next week.