Cobram Secondary College students Cameron Sneddon, Koby Lee and Jackson Betts.
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Abby Green
Local students are stepping up to the world stage in June for the World Hydrogen Remote Control Grand Prix in Switzerland.
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Cobram Secondary College students Cameron Sneddon, Jackson Betts and Koby Lee make up the only Australian team heading to the international competition this year.
Cameron said their team name was Team Hammertime, and the program they were participating in was called the H2GP program.
“It’s an initiative that brings together students from across the world to build one-to-10 scale remote control cars that are powered by hydrogen,” he said.
“The program requires you to build, design and test these cars to optimise their performance, and eventually, you race them in an endurance race of four to six hours with limited fuel resources.”
Team Hammertime won the Victorian finals in Melbourne last year, competing against 15 other schools.
“In that we did 445 laps, 60 laps more than second place, and winning that race secured us a spot at the world finals,” Cameron said.
“The previous year we raced we fell short, only playing two hours of the four-hour race, so going from that to winning the next year’s race was quite unbelievable for us.”
Cobram Secondary College students Koby Lee, Cameron Sneddon and Jackson Betts at the world qualifiers in Melbourne last July.
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Koby was also shocked to win. He said this would be his first time on a plane and he was excited to explore Switzerland.
Team leader and mechanic Jackson Betts said that to have a competitive edge in the race you needed to have “incredible hand-eye co-ordination” and good communication in the team.
He said they were grateful to the Cobram-Barooga Apex Club, which had already raised money for the team.
“This wouldn’t have happened if the community in Cobram was different because it’s such a close-knit community and everyone knows everyone here,” he said.
Jackson said the top three businesses to donate would have their sticker on the team car.
“If an individual person gives us more money than one of the businesses and is in the top three, we’ll put a photo of their face on the windshield,” he said.
Cameron’s mum, Michelle Sneddon, said it was “such an amazing achievement”.
“There’ll be a couple of us parents going over to help guide the boys and basically be their cheer squad,” she said.
One of the prizes to be won as part of the Team Hammertime fundraiser: a Richmond AFL jersey signed by the players.
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Mrs Sneddon said they were holding a fundraiser for the boys at the Grand Central Hotel Cobram on Saturday, March 7, with a main course dinner available at $50 per person.
There will also be a raffle and silent auction, with most of the prizes already donated by community members and organisations.
“It's amazing, everyone's been so generous,” she said.
To buy a ticket, contact The Grand Central Hotel Cobram on (03) 4800 4833.
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