Rockingham Raceway success!

Yesterday, the year 9 Greenpower team left school very VERY early in the morning (5.30am early!) to travel to Rockingham Raceway near Corby in Northamptonshire!!


Following our success in Saturday's Ford Dunton heat, we had decided to trial a new and more aerodynamic 'tail' on Darkside to see if the very lightweight team and the added aerodynamic advantage would allow us to push a little harder and go a little faster!

In addition to the tail a slightly higher gear ratio was also selected, just to see if we could get away with it?!

Following a short practise session the 4 hour race began with Natasha Layley at the wheel. "Tash the crash" fortunately did not live up to her nickname and had a smooth run although Mr Giddings experienced some software issues and spent most of Natasha's drive not receiving any data from the car via our telemetry system....

40 minutes in and the first driver change saw Kirt Cowell (Mr Cool) settle into a steady 10th position and put in some very consistent lap times. Following Kirt, the pit crew of Billy "whiz" Nightingale and Charlotte "full throttle Charlie" Finding, managed a nicely rapid battery and driver change to Ellie Pennick.
Ellie made her debut in Darkside driving very well despite her nerves and putting in the fastest lap so far at 27.5mph!!

Our 4th driver of the day was Liam "Hazzard" Lynch who is shaping up to be a bit of a stig, promptly beating Ellie's previous fastest lap and putting in a very consistent set of laps before unfortunately triggering the new speed trap on returning to the pit lane at the end of his stint. Having been delayed by 2 minutes as a punishment for speeding, our final battery and driver change was a speedy one as Carlos de costa took control and quickly began making his way through the field, reaching a promising 7th place before DISASTER!!

The little grub screw securing the motor sprocket had worked its way loose and poor Carlos ground to a halt and had to return to the paddock on a recovery truck. The problem was quickly rectified and Carlos returned to the track, fortunately having not lost position, and managed to finish the race in 7th position out of 45 cars and completing 94.1 miles, Darkside's highest ever mileage! (perhaps if we had no speeding penalties and no recovery, we might have hit the 100 mile mark.......who knows!)

Our next race is in September (after the summer hols) and is at Bedford Autodrome.

FORD DUNTON ESSEX HEAT RESULT!!!

WOW! Yesterday was the Essex Regional Greenpower Heat and we came 1st!!!

After a somewhat shortened practise session (having left the practise batteries at the school and having had to go back to get them) the race itself began at 12.05.

Our first driver away was Charlotte Finding (now nicknamed "Full Throttle Charlie") who managed in her 40 minute stint to work her way from midway down the field of 13 cars to 4th position. She managed to negotiate the extremely narrow and tricky hairpin with skill and apparent ease.

Our next driver was Natasha Layley, who was understandably nervous, this being her first drive ever! "Tash the Crash" had an eventful drive with several nudges into the hay bales, however no damage done and she managed to maintain position in time for some fresh batteries and our third driver Kirt Cowell.

Kirt, aka "Mr Cool" is proving his mettle as a reliable and skilled driver as he managed to tussle with the top runners, enjoying a stint in 1st place for a while, before being black flagged for being perhaps a little over enthusiastic and overtaking a slower car on the steeply banked bend at the end of the Dunton track.

Our fourth driver was Liam "Hazzard" Lynch, so named after his aerial antics last race. Liam was extra careful during his drive and put in a fine performance, easing the car up to 3rd place by the end of his session.

Cue our final battery change and our final driver Billy "Whizz" Nightingale, who was in for a lengthy 1 hour and 20 mins. By now the blistering hot day had raised the track temperature to 55 degrees centigrade, hot enough to feel through the soles of your shoes!!! Billy clocked up good lap after good lap and about halfway through his marathon drive, took first place and managed to extend his lead by a over a mile ahead of second place by the end of the race!

In 7 years of racing this is only the second time Plume have ever made the podium, so a massive thanks and congratulations to the year 9 team and their amazing and supportive families!!!

 

 

Roll on Monday, when we are at Rockingham Raceway in Northamptonshire!!

A new Battery Trolley

The second race of this season is nearly upon us and last season we managed with just a battered plastic trolley to move our batteries to and from race quarantine. So I thought it high time we made a proper trolley...

Billy, Liam, Charlotte and Natasha construct the base

Mr Raymond and Carlos work on the axle

Reece from the year10 team helps out by drilling some axle blocks

Not too shabby for something knocked up from offcuts of western red cedar that the builders have been using to clad the school!!!