Youngsters at a Cowley school are setting their sights on Formula 1 racing - on a miniature scale.

For the third year running, the design and technology club at St Gregory the Great School, in Cricket Road, will be taking part in the annual F1 in Schools competition.

Since last year's event - when the six racing enthusiasts beat more than 20 other teams to win their regional heat - the youngsters have been working on perfecting their balsa wood miniature racing cars ready for this year's contest.

And this week the group will decide which of the cars, which measure about 13cm long, they will put in to the regional heat on December 14.

Teacher David Johnson said he was quietly confident that the cars Dominic Henry, Gareth Spackman, Elmo Law, Adam Matheson, Sebastian Tamtin and Harry Smith, all 12, had been working on, would improve on last year's performance.

Mr Johnson said: "We have been lucky enough to get a track in the school and we're testing them out.

"We have got some that look like they might be able to beat the world record of 20 metres in under a second.

"One of our cars has broken the record once so we're really pleased - but it isn't consistent enough yet which is why we're testing it to make improve- ments."

The students were given a brief to design a car out of a sheet of balsa wood, powered by a carbon dioxide canister, and have been working with Oxford University to construct aluminium wheels to finish off the model.

About 200 schools from around the UK take part and if the St Gregory the Great team's car is successful at the regional heats, and then at the national heats, the winner goes on to Malaysia to compete with budding car designers from all over the world.

The prize for the overall winner is a scholarship to City University in London.

Mr Johnson said: "At the moment we're confident we can do even better than last year.

"We're all very excited."

F1 in Schools was founded by partners Denford, BAE Systems and carmaker Jaguar and is aimed at creating a fun and exciting environment for young people to learn about careers in engineering, science and technology.