THEIR underdog story is so good, they should make a movie about it.

The Professional class team from Roma State College have overcome incredible odds to nearly win the F1 in Schools State Finals earlier this month.

Whiplash Racing, made up of Year 12 students Wenbo Li, Quinnie Warin and Matt Reynolds, convincingly beat a previous Nationals-level team to finish second at the titles in Toowoomba.

They were edged by a team from Brisbane State High - a school with 2500 kids.

On top of distance and technology challenges they faced in designing and build their wooden cars to race, the students said they also faced issues while in competition.

"I was so shocked, because we had seven critical penalties on our car and we managed to beat a team that went to Nationals last year,” Matt said.

"A critical penalty is something on your car that could give you an unfair advantage.

"We still managed to come on top.”

Whiplash Racing won separate categories for Verbal Presentation, Team Marking an Graphic Design, which showed they could work as a team.

Wenbo said the teamwork aspect was vitally important to succeed in the subject, and prepared them well for their future endeavours.

"You have to talk to each effectively, with good communication skills,” he said.

"You learn skills like project management, teamwork - not just the engineering stuff that you see, but also public speaking.

"It's something that looks good on a resume.”

"The workload is big but it really does prepare you, especially if you want to go to university,” Matt added.

The competition even provided a unique networking opportunity, with Quinnie even securing possible employment after she finished school.

"It's called the Confederation of Australian Motor Sports. Basically, there was a representative called Bob who said next year if I wanted to take a gap year that they were willing to take me on board as a graphic designer,” she said.

The trio thanked the Roma community and their sponsors for their help.

RESULTS:

Professional Senior Class

Whiplash - Quinnie Warin, Wenbo Li, Matt Reynolds (Second)

Development Class

Nuclear Skippys - Tyson James, Ben-Able Justrandy (Encouragement)

Crimson Comets - Daniel Warin, JP Balagbis, Josh Dare (Encouragement)

Cadet Junior Class

Neon Flash - Jaimie Balagbis, Bridgette Bowden, Jake Kajewski (Knockout Race Champions)

Bing Racers - Thomas Schefe, Levi Kingston, Connor Turnbull, Jade Tetlow

Grim Reapers - Cameron Boon, McKenzie Walker

Insert Name Here - Mitch Eddie, Casey Chambers, Matt Humphreys

Galaxy Geeks - Makayala Rudd, Hannah Green, Charmaine Liston

Turbo Turtles - Brock Westbrook, Beau Cash, Alex Ahern

Robo Sharks - Rueben Nicholls, Beccy Lister, Nic Lunson

Hammer Heads - Heather Proud, Heidi Seawright, Chelsea James, Lauren Squire