A GROUP of Oxford schoolboys are celebrating after building a successful miniature racing car.

Six pupils from St Gregory the Great School are now in pole position to take on schools across the country in the national finals of the F1 in School contest.

The team - which is called The Hippos Strike Back - will take part in the national finals of the Autosport Show in Birmingham next month after seeing off challenges from dozens of schools.

The pupils entered a competition to design and build a self-propelled car - and won the South East England heat.

Design and technology teacher Nick O'Callaghan said: "They are over the moon.

"They had the fastest car and they won the age category, beating something like 29 other teams including A-Level and GCSE groups."

The cars, which measure about 13cm in length, were raced along a 20m track and timed. The Hippos' car made it in 1.12 seconds - not far outside the world record of 1.05.

Mr O'Callaghan said he was very proud of the 13- and 14-year-olds who had worked on the project, and added: "They did really well and we were the only team to get applauded when we raced.

"Now we have to redesign the stand and we are going to slightly adjust the car to try to get it to go that little bit faster.

"This competition is everything to the boys.

"The grand prize is a £250,000 scholarship to City University.

"They have learned a lot of life skills, such as how to work as a team. These guys stuck together and worked really hard, and got on really well."

If the team, made up of Dominic Henry, Gareth Spackman, Elmo Law, Adam Matheson, Sebastian Tampin and Harry Smith, wins at the national competition they will compete against cars manufactured by students across the world at the finals in Malaysia.

Team leader Dominic, 13, from Headington, said: "We were very pleased with the result. "We have been practising since March, so it has been quite a long time."