Cobram Secondary College students Cameron Sneddon, Jackson Betts and Koby Lee, known as ‘Team Hammertime’, were the only Australian team at the international competition in Switzerland in June, competing alongside 30 other countries.
The competition challenges students to build one-to-10 scale remote-controlled cars powered by hydrogen, before putting them to the test in endurance races with limited fuel.
Despite mechanical problems and a technical track they had never seen before, Team Hammertime finished ninth overall.
Cameron said the team was happy with the result despite being “plagued” by mechanical issues.
“Our hydrogen cell, which converts the hydrogen to electricity, malfunctioned and that lost us about two hours of the race because we used that much energy in 30 minutes,” he said.
Forced to rethink their strategy and conserve fuel, the team dropped to 16th place before realising in the final 10 minutes they had more fuel than expected.
“I jumped in the driver’s seat and gave it full throttle,” Cameron said.
“It was quite exciting the last two laps, it was just full gas while everyone else was going slow, and you saw our little red car fly past them.”
The late charge lifted the team from 16th to eighth place on the first day.
The boys were also grateful for a technical official who helped them overcome their mechanical problems.
“A technical official came and helped us ... so the next day we brought in an inflatable kangaroo for him, and you could not wipe the smile off his face,” Cameron said.
One of the highlights for the team was a cultural dinner, where students shared food and traditions from their home countries.
The boys took two AFL footballs with them as gifts and ended up outside teaching teams from Kuwait, Czechia and Slovakia how to play.
For Koby, the trip was his first time on a plane. Despite describing the 20-hour journey via Bangkok as “boring”, he said he enjoyed meeting the other teams and experiencing Switzerland.
“I liked being able to talk to all the different teams and just see what the country was like,” he said.
Koby also made the most of Switzerland’s famous chocolate, visiting a chocolate factory and buying almost three kilograms of chocolate — although he admitted there was none left now.
For Cameron, the experience was about more than racing, teaching the students lessons in teamwork, leadership and communication.
“We weren’t just going for the race, we were going for the experience, and it was something you’re not going to get anywhere else,” he said.
The boys hope to return to the competition next year, when the world final will be held in Australia, either as competitors or volunteers.
“If we get the opportunity to, we would love to race again, but if we don’t, we’d love to go and volunteer our time, go help out some more teams, maybe see some people we saw last year and meet some new faces,” Cameron said.
The team thanked all of its sponsors for helping make the trip to Switzerland possible.
“It was an incredible opportunity, and we cannot be more grateful,” the team said.
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