The Marist College’s Stellar Racing team of Ruairí Collins, Andrés Leal and Hammad Mateen pictured after winning the STEM Racing F1 national finals in Cork.

Two Athlone teams seek financial backing for World STEM Racing finals in Singapore

Published: Fri 26 Jun 2026, 3:43 PM

by Navjyoti Dalal

Two Athlone secondary schools recently brought pride to the town by achieving success at the national finals of STEM Racing F1 championship.

Marist College's 'Stellar Racing' team was crowned the national champion, while Athlone Community College's 'Apex Racing' bagged the third position at the event held in Cork.

As a result of these achievements, the two local teams are now due to participate in the international finals of the competition in Singapore in October.

The teams from Marist College and Athlone Community College are appealing to the town's businesses and community for sponsorship and fundraising support to help meet the costs of their participation at the finals in Southeast Asia.

STEM Racing (formerly known as F1 in Schools) is an international STEM competition in which students design, manufacture, and race a scaled Formula 1-style car.

Teams are judged not only on race performance, but also on engineering design, innovation, branding, sponsorship, and project management, making it a highly competitive, industry-standard experience in engineering and business.

Marist College's 'Stellar Racing' team was guided by teacher Paul Hardiman, and comprises TY students Ruairí Collins, responsible for manufacturing of the car, managing social media and funding, Andrés Leal, who designed the car, and fifth year student Hammad Mateen who took charge of graphic designing and managing the team.

Athlone Community College's Apex Racing has Srinidhi Karthik as team manager, Ella McGowan as enterprise manager, Orin Smith as manufacturing engineer, Tadhg Johnston as design engineer and Natalia Lison as resource manager. The team was mentored by Eoghan Joyce.

Their participation is expected to cost each of the teams between €30,000 and €50,000. As a result, they are reaching out to local businesses and have also launched fundaisers on the GoFundMe website.

Athlone Community College’s Apex Racing team is comprised of Srinidhi Karthik, Ella McGowan, Orin Smith, Tadhg Johnston and Natalia Lison.

"Currently, our main focus is funding," said Ruairi Collins from Stellar Racing. "Sending three students and two teachers for the competition is expected to cost us roughly €30,000. The registration for the championship is €8,000, accomodation is €7,000, flights and baggage €5,000, design development and manufacturing of the car is another €4,000 to €5,000.

"Another substantial expense is the display stand that we have to make; while there are also expenses like booking a website domain, designing and manufacturing team uniforms, and transport costs in Singapore."

He added: "We are reaching out to local businesses for sponsorship appeals, to advertise their business logos on competition cars and our uniform, and for social media collaborations as well. A GoFundMe fundraiser was launched last week where donations have begun to come in from family and friends.

"We are grateful to Viking Tours, Fortismet Ltd, Mergon Group, and Byrne Carolan Cunningham LLP Solicitors, who have confirmed sponsorship to us."

Athlone Community College is formally launching its team's fundraiser this Friday, June 26, in the presence of MEP Ciaran Mullooly and Cllr Frankie Keena.

Apex Racing's Ella McGowan said that, so far, most of the funding for the project is crowdsourced. "The community has been very helpful to us. We have a live fundraising page, and the GoFundMe team also reaches out to businesses for support.

"Our team is a good vehicle for businesses that are looking for collaboration and brand reach," she explained.

Srinidhi Karthik from Apex Racing shared that its sponsorship goal of €40,000 to €50,000 covers costs for travel, accommodation, competition registration, backups for the car model, uniforms for the team, the display screen, and other miscellaneous expenses.

At the STEM Racing national finals Apex Racing also received the sponsorship and marketing award. "We're looking for companies and businesses to sponsor us and are confident that the community will come together to help us," said Srinidhi.

While the Marist College is a seasoned STEM Racing participant, having qualified for the finals seven times in the past, reaching this stage is a first for Athlone Community College, and by extension its patron Longford and Westmeath Education and Training Board (LWETB).

Srinidhi said, "For us as a team it is a lifetime opportunity, we want to represent our community, school and Ireland in the highest possible way."

She added that the students were beyond excited for the trip. "Singapore is a beautiful country, very different from Ireland. Aside from competing, we're really looking forward to meeting and sharing our thoughts and ideas with students from the 80 other countries," she said.

The Singapore finals will be the culmination of a lengthy process for the students who have been involved with the STEM Racing participation since October 2025.

The students from both schools crossed the different stages of ideating, proposing the idea formally, designing, failing many times at the design stage, and refining the design to fit the criteria, before the national finals in Kinsale in May this year.

Orin Smith from Apex Racing explained; "My teammate Tadhg and I began with researching and designing the car on Solidworks, an online design software.

"We then would print out 3D models. It took us two weeks to make the car. The designing phase was the longest, and then came the testing. We tested the model on several criteria including strength and weight."

Ruairi is hopeful that the school's past experience with STEM Racing can help the team deliver a podium finish. "At Marist College we have a history of students competing in STEM Racing. Our teacher Paul Hardiman gave us the material, and guidance to start brainstorming. He assigned us roles.

"This is the seventh time Marist has reached the finals, having reached the finals in Texas, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, twice earlier in Singapore, and once during the pandemic. Podium is the goal. It's very possible, given our experience."

He added that while rules and regulations change every year, the last few years have witnessed a major design overhaul. "Physically, the front wing and the mid-section had a major change in the design. The new design configurations made us as light and aerodynamic as possible," said Ruairi.

* The two Athlone teams' fundraising pages can be found at gofundme.com - search for 'Help Us get to The Aramco Stem Racing World Finals 2026' for the Marist team's page, and search for 'Support Apex Racing’s Journey to the STEM Racing World Final' for the Athlone Community College team's page.