The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
A BUNRATTY teenager is part of an all-girl team of Transition Year students in Laurel Hill Secondary School FCJ Limerick, taking part in a competition to design, engineer and manufacture a model Formula 1 car, writes Conor Clohessy.
Maya Rooney (16) is the engineer for the the “Formula 1 in Schools” project, in which they will , blueprint the miniature car through computer design programmes; it is her responsibility to work around prototypes.
The project is headed by the team manager Aaliyah Coughlan (15), who is responsible for ensuring everything runs smoothly across the board throughout the complex process.
Other members include resources officer Lara Sheehan, designer Eva Kiely, fundraising and sponsorship officer Andrea Forde, and social media manager Ameenah Husseini – all 15.
Maya explained: “First of all, me and Eva have to design our prototype on paper, and we work together to put it into design. While we do that, the rest of the team work on finding sponsorship for our team.”
Lara is in charge of purchasing and getting in contact with suppliers, while Eva works closely with Maya to provide editing and graphics for the prototypes.
Andrea and Ameenah work alongside each other to contact potential fundraising and venue organisations and promote the schedule of the overall project on social media, as well as secure sponsors for the team.
The name of the team, Alloro Racing, was inspired by the Italian word for the laurel tree, the leaves of which are used to produce victory wreaths.
Maya continued: “Our physics teacher told us about the competition and asked if anyone would be interested in it, so we all came together to enter. We currently have two prototypes, and we’re currently trying to figure out which would make the best car.”
The students will now have to make out a five-page proposal, in which they outline each of their plans for the rest of the process up until December, at which point the team will come together again to see where they can make this project the best it can be.
The team admitted that the process is built on good brainstorming, and that the biggest challenge for them now is to fundraise and secure sponsorship, as all costs are being covered by the team themselves otherwise; the girls have already secured Lifeline Cardiology Clinic and Bubble Waffle Factory as sponsors.
Parties interested in sponsoring their effort can contact Alloro Racing through their Instagram and Facebook accounts @allororacing, where they provide access to the development of the car and updates about upcoming fundraiser events, or at their official email allororacing@gmail.com.
