13 March 2026
While most eyes were on the Albert Park racetrack for the Australian Grand Prix, students from around the country, including a team at Joseph Banks Secondary College, were more interested in the engineering work going on in pit lane.
Ethan Robinson, Sachi Prajapati, Brock Figliomeni and Dylan Comans are the school’s ‘Subsonic’ team for the STEM Racing project.
The team will be heading to Melbourne for the national finals.
The Year 7 group recently secured second place in the WA State competition for 2026 STEM Racing and, led by teacher Michael Spanier, will head to Melbourne next week for the National Finals.
They were tasked with designing an F1 car to travel a 20 metre race distance as fast as possible, while withstanding the forces of launch acceleration, track traversing and physical deceleration after crossing the finishing line.
They will join two other WA groups, one from Balga Senior High School and another team of students unaffiliated with a school, competing against more than 40 students from other parts of Australia, and New Zealand.
In this year’s competition, teams needed to create a miniature balsa wood car along with an engineering and enterprise portfolio explaining their design, project management, branding, and marketing.
They will also need to provide a trade display, a 10 minute verbal presentation, and take part in interviews with different judges from different branches of industry.
WA STEM Racing liaison Riley McGlue said while taking part was a big commitment, it was incredibly rewarding for students providing industry exposure and networking for future careers.
The team with their trade display.
“The competition is a fantastic opportunity for students who choose to compete and teaches a vast variety of life skills as well as hands-on engineering, marketing, and management experience,” she said.
“STEM Racing is a springboard into a multitude of careers, with team members having to fill roles such as engineering, marketing, management, and graphic design, as well as other career skills.”
For the students at Joseph Banks Secondary College, what began as an after-school project, has turned into a major achievement.
Principal Liz Smith said the whole school community was very proud of the ‘Subsonic’ team, who joined forces with the Year 10 team ‘Turbo’ to fundraise for the competition.
Together, the two teams raised an impressive $4,000 in donations from industry partners, community supporters and Edith Cowan University’s School of Engineering, as well as a $2,500 contribution from the team at Directions Workforce Solutions.
The 2026 STEM Racing National Finals are held between 20-22 March.