Gilroy students qualify for H2GP World Final in Chemnitz, Germany
Five innovative students from rural North Queensland will be trading spaghetti for sauerkraut after qualifying for the Hydrogen Grand Prix World Final in Germany.
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Five innovative students from rural North Queensland will be trading spaghetti and salami for schnitzel and sauerkraut after spectacularly qualifying for the Hydrogen Grand Prix (H2GP) World Final in Germany – if the team can secure vital sponsorship.
The Gilroy Velocity Raptors comprising five renewable-energy motorheads from Gilroy Santa Maria College in Ingham claimed first prize in the H2GP NQ Finals 2025 last month, with its 1:10 scale remote-controlled hydrogen-powered vehicle taking out wins for endurance, energy and design.
The inexperienced Raptors overcame a number of challenges, including their comparative youth and an array of technical challenges, to trounce a dozen other teams by recording 387 laps in four hours – 90 more than their closest competition.
They now, however, face arguably their biggest challenge: raising in excess of $20,000 to travel to the finals in Chemnitz – the ‘European City of Culture 2025’ – in August.
Nate Hodgson, 13, Nikolas Dillan, 15, Owen Stack, 14, Nicholas Porta, 14, and Adam Previtera, 13, along with science teachers Belinda Strong and Nadine Jorgenson said they were seeking support from renewable energy companies in Townsville and North Queensland to participate in the global event.
Owen, the team manager, said that given Townsville’s growing reputation as a hub for renewable energy development, he was hopeful that local industry would “get behind the next generation of clean-energy thinkers … and a more energy-efficient future”.
He said the team had already raised almost $5000 thanks to Ingham sponsors, with the money earmarked for flights and accommodation for about two weeks.
The team has also organised a number of fund-raising events prior to the finals.
“It’s such a massive event that they have to do multiple days to fit all the teams in; there are six teams from Australia alone.”
Nate and Niko are technically termed ‘pit crew’ but are more accurately described as the technical brains behind the slick operation.
“We had a heap of issues before the (NQ) event … a faulty battery and our hydrogen wasn’t working properly but we managed to work through it,” Nate said.
Niko said that in addition to the design, the key to the team’s success was its strategy to conserve energy by not driving too quickly, or too slowly.
“We used math to work out what the right pace was going to be … why all the other teams failed is that they didn’t do the calculations and were going way too fast and half of them ended up being out of energy within two hours,” he said.
“But some of them were being too slow, and weren’t doing enough laps.”
Nicholas and Adam said that despite being the RC operators and fighting the natural inclination to drive quickly, they agreed with the team’s winning strategy.
“I thought that was an incredible idea,” Nicholas said.
Adam is one of three members of the team who have never travelled abroad but was excited about what would be a trip of a lifetime.
“I’m looking forward to going somewhere different, just being somewhere else; a new culture and different people.”
Owen said he had little doubt the team’s tortoise-versus-hare approach would pay off on the world stage.
“We have a dead-set strategy, we are going to win.”
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Originally published as Gilroy students qualify for H2GP World Final in Chemnitz, Germany
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