Other College News

Dragster Races

The year 10 iSTEM class had their finals last week and what a race it was. The competitors tested their cars to gain favourable positions in the seeded draw. The car with the fastest times would race against the car with the slowest time, 2nd fastest against the 2nd slowest and so on, thus giving each competitor a chance at making it all the way but also fostering a build-up of excitement at the anticipation of the cars with the fastest and second fastest times competing against each other in the final. 20 cars in total competed in the competition, cars in the middle (10th and 11th fastest) had to slog it out against cars that posted a similar time.

The fastest time trial was posted by Tommy Schaefer with a time of 0.961s for the 20m track (an average speed of 74.92 km/hr). At the time of racing, it was an O'Connor record (the previous fastest time was 0.990 by James Rogers).

Edward Truong posted the 11th fastest time which was 1.266 (an average speed of 56.87 km/hr).

In the first knockout round of racing, there were many upsets and close finishes, but the standout was Ed or "Squiddy's" race in which his car blitzed the O'Connor record by posting a time of 0.903s (79.73 km/hr). Clearly, this was a car to watch.

As Tommy and Ed progressed through the rounds, their cars continued to beat the competition.

When it came to the final race, all of the competitors paused while the national anthem was sung.

The atmosphere was building.

The cars were loaded onto the track.

Final blessings were made.

The starting gate was set, the timers were ready and the video referees were in place.

Months of sanding had come down to this moment.

The starter released the hammer and the cars were off. Tommy's car was the fastest out of the gate, taking an early lead down the track. It looked like the race was won, but Squiddy's car began to claw back the ground that it lost and by halfway the two cars were neck and neck again. The cars crossed the finish line but it was too close to call with the naked eye. Call in the video referees. Upon inspection of the multiple angles of the finish line, a new Dragster champion emerged victorious. The times of the race read as follows:

Tommy - 0.973s. (car J)

Ed - 0.972s. (car N)

The new winner by 1 1000th of a second was Ed Truong!

Year 9 Retreat

A wonderful day had by all who attended. Thankyou to Mr May, Miss Mellowship, Sophie and Jayden for all they did to ensure the day was as amazing as it was.