MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Students from Manatee County are flying across the globe to Singapore to compete in a Formula 1 in Schools world competition.
The students were tasked with building an entire Formula One race team where they design and build a replica race car and raise money from businesses in the community to compete.
Brian Kendzior, the Engineering teacher at Palmetto High school is confident his team, Perspective Racing, will win big.
"Only a couple of cars have broken the one-second barrier,” said Kendzior. Most of the cars can travel a 20-meter track in second. Kendzior says based on trial runs, the car they are taking to Singapore is even faster.
"I feel pretty confident saying with actually run under a second,” he said.
"We had one of the fastest track times in the world,” said Jaxson Bunes, a student on the team.
The students will compete against 51 school teams from 23 different countries. During the national competition, they ranked 2nd.
"Do I think we have what it takes to happen, yes I do,” said Kendzior.
Bunes has been working on the car for two years. He’s tweaked it about 140 times.
"There became a point where I had to stop making changes to the car so we could actually start producing it,” said Bunes.
It takes eight hours to carve out the foam body and another 20 hours to 3D print the other parts of the car.
"A CO2 cartridge propels them in this back hole here,” said Alana Kelly, who is in charge of budgeting and business management.
She was in charge of raising $50,000 dollars from local sponsors to compete. She says the Manatee Education Foundation helped them get in touch with businesses which made fundraising a little easier.
"Our experience has definitely propelled our future career paths,” said Kelly. “We definitely gain skills that are going to be applicable in any industry."
The team heads out Tuesday. For more information on Formula 1 in Schools, click here.
