Greenpower Challenge Update
Sunday the 9 of October saw the end of the racing season, culminating at the UK National Finals held at Goodwood race circuit. It was a great surprise for our students to be told that they’d been invited to participate, the second time in two years! The event had over 80 entrants from all over the UK and even teams from Brazil, Spain and Portugal.
The day started early, most of our students arrived by 7.00am and worked together to prepare our trusty original car for scrutineering, which it sailed through. Having been approved to race, the team set about organising themselves for practice. After the initial session in practice and the time taken to complete a circuit, the team decided to replace the gearing to test their time. As they did so, a representative of the organisers noticed their activity in replacing the gears for themselves. Their comment was that it was a pleasure to see students entering into the spirit of the event, rather than have adults involved in the repairing of the car. A short while later the group were interviewed by the Goodwood PR interviewers and broadcast live to the circuit. Having replaced the gears it was noted that the car was slower, so they reverted to the previous set up.
The first race saw the group start strong, quickly gaining places as the cars set off round the circuit. As the laps passed the field spread out with the faster scratch built cars soon lapping our class, our car was 28th out of 84 entrants at this point. After our second driver change we dropped slightly, sitting 44th the car carried on sitting mid-field. Once the third driver change had taken place, we’d covered over an hour of racing, the car started to slow and then stopped. The car batteries had given up, or had they? The car was trailered back to the pits and checked over, the fuse box had been touching a terminal. Once sorted the car was sent out again, only to drop to 65th place and then it finally stopped minutes before the end of the session. It was trailered back and replacement batteries were fitted, along with final checks for race 2 later.
Race 2 started after all competing cars were lined up on the starting grid for a photo opportunity and more interviews, for which our team was selected again. After the photos were taken and the track cleared, the race started at 4.00pm. Once again the team had selected their three drivers and each one did their 30 minute stint behind the wheel. The team’s times were similar to the earlier events and so this meant they achieved 26th place. Of the 26 kit based cars competing in our class, our team were 13th. This has been a very successful result for the team, especially when you consider they are up against a lot of heavily sponsored schools in this event.
The season is over but the team are eagerly working on improving the original car that was built in 2018, as well as finishing off car number 2 in preparation for 2023 events. All of this would not be possible if it was not for the sponsors who’ve supported our team. The following businesses and people have been instrumental in the support of this team and we would like to thank them for their ongoing support:
Cube Controls
DW Electrical
PTL
Jacobs Steel
The Mills family
Ewa Kuniczak