Drummond F1 Club speeds into competition
DRUMMOND - Drummond High School just entered the arena of big time racing.
Well, sort of.
The F1 Car Club, formed in January by science teacher Darcy Schindler, will have its first competition of the year this Friday in Bozeman.
Like their full-scale counterparts, these model F1 cars must stringent specifications before they complete. A lesson the team learned all too well when their first design was deemed out of code.
"It came in too light," said Tanner Piippo, the team's lead technician. "We also had some parts that were too this and the axel holes were too high, which meant it was too low to the ground. We had to go back and make some adjustments and came up with our second design."
Piippo is just one of seven team members, each with their own focus for the team's success. And astonishingly all are freshmen, except for team leader Guilherme Agostini who is a junior foreign exchange student. So even with his loss next year, the Trojan F1 team has a solid base from which ti grow from for the next few years.
Other team members include Donna Seekell (Marketing & Social Media), Danae Pollard (General Team Essay & Pit Display), Carson Geary and Shamus Scott (Tech Portfolio) and Elizabeth Cartmill (Pit Display).
While those on the large-scale F1 circuit ate judge simply by who crosses the finish line first, the Drummond Club will be assessed in each area by a panel of judges. The scores are then tallied, added to the car's physical performance, and the winners get to advance to the next stage of the competition.
The losers all go home.
As part of its marketing program, the team had to collect sponsorships just like a real F1 team. Drummond got 11, including Fickler Oil, Trixie's Antler Saloon, Blackfoot Angler, The Stray Bullet, Wagon Wheel Cafe, Drummond Kiwanis, Better Than Logs Inc., Palmer Electrical Contracting, Side by Side Spraying LLC, Eagle Post & Pole and Pfendler Post & Pole.
Geary and Scott were two of the team's original four members, and have been with the F1 Club from the beginning.
"We went to a meeting in Bozeman in January with Mr. Schindler," said Geary, "and that's how it started."
The team has been pressing to get everything done on time for next week's competition, except for one thing - A physical test run of the car itself.
"We hope to get a chance to test it the day before the race in Bozeman," said Piippo.
