Upgrades, Modifications and Goodwood Heat 2015

Following a successful 2014 season, which saw Projectile finishing the International Final in 28th place out of 79 cars, some modifications and upgrades were deemed necessary.

First a complete rewire was deemed necessary, adding a backup relay to the existing speed controller system.

Secondly, we have created a pair of rear access hatches, allowing us to change gear ratios and the electrical system without removing the whole body shell.

Our first race of the 2015 season was eventful to say the least! Starting the day off with a mishap, I unfortunately managed to snap off the isolator switch on lifting the car out of our trailer, but thankfully Greenpower had spares in stock, so a replacement was purchased and hastily fitted in time for practice.

Our new team of year 9's had elected to split themselves by gender so the two F24 races had become a Plume girls vs boys! The girls started off with Megan Bramley, who despite her initial nerves, quickly clocked up the fastest girls lap of the race and climbed from the third row of the grid to 8th place before her stint ended with a pretty rapid driver change to Fiona Walton, who continued the race, driving confidently and as if she'd been competing for years! Fiona climbed further still and managed to reach 6th before it was time to hand over to Mitzi Boyle, who drove brilliantly and managed to finish in 4th place, narrowly missing a podium finish but a best ever position for Projectile!!!

Unfortunately, after the race, Mitzi collided with some stationary cars on the track seriously damaging the front axle. Cue some frantic fixing and with some helpful bolts from the Jaguar Landrover F24+ team and we managed to sort the front axle and get the car racing again.

Due to the earlier fixing session, we missed the start of the senior category F24+ race and Lizzie Docherty was forced to start the race from the pit lane. However, she drove a superbly smooth race and climbed to 11th place out of 16 cars by the end of the hour and a half race.....a good start to her season.

The last race of the day was the first ever race for the new year 9 boys team, who were keen to match the girls earlier success. Starting from the very back of the grid, Adam Lunn drove like a demon, demolishing the girls fastest lap and climbing to 8th place in only his second lap!! After a driver change to Michael Brandon, Projectile continued to gain places until disaster struck and Michael had a racing incident on a corner which resulted in a short excursion onto the grass. A final driver change saw George Hammond's debut drive, although it quickly became apparent that the earlier impact had damaged the car and was seriously affecting its performance, resulting in the car having to be recovered at the end of the race