A group of Welsh students who built a successful racing car have paid tribute to Ruthin racing driver Tom Pryce.

Cardiff Racing became the first British team ever to win the Formula Student competition earlier this year.

The competition is organised by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and pits students from universities around the world against each other on the track across a range of measures.

Team member Dewi Griffiths, 26, said: “It started off with Lee and I. We’re both massive fans of Welsh motorsport and first we were looking at former Welsh rally drivers and then onto everything about Tom Pryce

VIDEO: Watch as students pay tribute to Ruthin's Formula One ace Tom Pryce

“For me, he’s a bit of a hero in Welsh motorsport.

“We looked as his career and wanted to bring something about it in for our own project.

“I’ve been driving the cars for eight years in the UK and around Europe.

“We have four drivers for each event and I’m one of the four - and I modelled my helmet on Tom’s

“We wanted people we compete with to know about Tom’s history and what he achieved.”

Dewi added: “We have this tradition of naming the car.

“Last year we called the car Nella after Tom’s widow, which we thought was a nice thing to do.

“One of the boys got in touch with her over social media and we got a lovely message back.

“She said it was nice to see people still remembered him.

“The car didn’t live up to expectations, sadly, so we thought we’d have another go.

“We named it Gwyneth after his mum and Nella said Gwyneth would have been proud of us doing that.”

The new car, powered by a Triumph motorcycle engine, was built by a new group of students before being made ready for competition after the end of term.

Dewi, who is originally from the Rhymney Valley, added: “The biggest competition for students in the world is at Silverstone in July, run by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

“All in all, 120 teams enter from around the world.

“There were 34 countries represented. It went well and in the end we won - the first British university team to win it outright in 20 years.

“We’ve been out in the Czech Republic since and as an end of season, we thought we’d bring it up to Ruthin and take a few pictures, before taking it back to Cardiff to start all over again.

“There are about 20-25 working on it.

“For the undergraduates, it’s part of the teaching in mechanical engineering, so third year students can do a quarter of the year on the project, maybe 12 hours a week in all, and then the masters students do a bit more.

“But, after exams, you just work the hours until it’s done.”