Dunsfold Park (Top Gear) track sees a triumphant 2nd place for the girls!

Sunday saw us depart school at our usual ridiculous 5.00 am for our last race before the forthcoming international final.

Mr Adams looks on from a foggy early morning at Dunsfold

A foggy track soon cleared into a beautiful late summer day and racing began with Projectile pushing hard and setting a cracking pace in race one with Megan driving in the bold and assertive manor that she is rapidly becoming known for. The car then sadly suffered a breakdown which saw the car out of the race for around 15 minutes....the main power relay had vibrated loose and unplugged itself causing complete power loss!!! Still, Fiona rejoined the race in last place and proceeded to begin winding in those ahead of her in dramatic style. Mitzi, our final driver of the race, continued to work hard and eventually managed to push all the way to a 4th place finish, an amazing effort considering the time out of the race!

Power chases Projectile!

 Meanwhile the boys job was to get our newest car "Power" qualified for the final. Adam drove brilliantly from the off, matching Projectile lap for lap until incredibly a mechanical breakdown occurred at EXACTLY the same time as Projectile broke down!!! Hectic action in the paddock followed, and thankfully Power had only suffered a displaced drive chain and was quickly sent back out with Nikhil skillfully making up lost laps throughout his drive. Power's final driver Alex Lee Ranson brought his experience to bear and gained yet more places finishing the race in a brilliant 5th place, a fantastic achievement for the car's second race this season!!!

On to the senior F24+ race which saw Lizzie starting the race from the pit lane but quickly pulling past her opposition and engaging in some incredibly close racing throughout the hour long race. Lizzie is an incredibly skilled and competent racing driver, whose lap times were so consistent that you could almost set a watch from them. She finished in 8th place and proudly once again beat apprentice teams from both Renishaw and Jaguar Landrover.

Cars line up on the grid for the start of race 2

The final race of the day and the pressure was truly on the year 10 girls to try and match the boys amazing achievement at Bedford race. Megan took off like a rocket at the start, quickly leading the field by half a lap for a long while before the legendary Rotary Racer began to wind her in. A brilliant pitstop and Fiona not only held second place, but continued to pull away from 3rd as she valiantly chased and tussled with the incredible Rotary. The amazing Mitzi had a slightly lengthy pit-stop due to some slow marshaling but drove like fury trying to hold onto second place even accidentally driving OVER a cone whilst chasing Rotary Racer!!! Mitzi eventually brought Projectile home to a rapturous 2nd place....an awesome finish to come second only to a team who have won practically everything they ever entered!

Still chasing!

In the same race Power ran beautifully and Alex Kay took the car from near the back of the grid to near the front before handing over to Michael Brandon who solidly lapped his way onward into a very promising 4th place before handing over to George Hammond and the final stint. Sadly for George the batteries were ailing and despite some great driving the car ran out of juice and was forced to stop 10 minutes before the end of the race. Despite that, Power managed to finish 10th in a field of 31 cars.....not bad team, not bad at all!!

The yr 10 team were thrilled to be presented their trophy by representatives from McLaren alongside the beautiful P650S hybrid prototype

SO!!! We now eagerly await the final on October the 11th at Rockingham Raceway....watch this space...

Bedford Heat and a WIN for Projectile

Bedford heat saw our first race of the season with 2 cars from the Plume stable attending in a field of 31 cars.

Race one, saw the year 10 girls start well with Megan Bramley enthusiastically pulling away from the front row of the grid and driving brilliantly reaching 2nd place right the way through her 30 minute stint. After a swift driver change Fiona Walton continued with some cracking lap times before an unfortunate incident caused the car to shed its drive chain and require recovery. Having sorted the problem the car headed back out with Mitzi Boyle taking the wheel and bringing Projectile home in a very credible 12th place.

Meanwhile the year 11 team headed out in the newly completed Plume Power with Yasmin Tennant pulling smoothly away from the line and driving cautiously as she learned the characteristics of the new car. Alex Kay took over for the second stint and really began to push the car harder and harder as his turn progressed. Jane Marie Osborne began the final stint of the race well and drove confidently to finish in 24th place.

The Formula 24+ senior race saw Lizzie Docherty competing in a field of 18 cars. Lizzie drove fantastically and her lap times were consistent and fast! After an hour of hard racing with only one minor misadventure into a gravel trap, Lizzie finished in a personal best of 7th, beating teams of apprentices from Jaguar Landrover, Perkins Engines, MIRA  and Renishaw Engineering.

Onto Race 2 and the year 10 boys. Following the F24+ race, a front tyre had to be hastily changed. This delay meant that Adam Lunn started further down the grid than in race one. From the outset Adam drove like a demon weaving his way past car after car and working his way to 1st place and on to build up a lead of 3 and a half minutes over 2nd place. The fastest pitstop of any team on the day saw our second driver Michael Brandon exit the pits still in front of 2nd place and continue to grow our lead to an incredible 7 and a half minutes over 2nd place. Our final driver George Hammond maintained our lead and drove brilliantly on fading batteries to nurse the car home an incredible 2.8 miles ahead of 2nd place.....what a result!!

The lads not only won, but also set the distance record and the lap record for the track.

The Dream Team with their medals and trophy

The year 11 team drove well but sadly suffered a rear tyre blowout in the second race, which took 18 minutes to fix. Despite this, Jane Marie nursed the car home to 19th place, a considerable improvement on race one.

So onto next weekend and Dunsfold Park (Top Gear track) and the final heat before the International Final.......

Rockingham raceway heat and HEAT!!

Wednesday saw our first really hot race at Rockingham with a total of 60 teams attending! The temperature climbed to a heady 35.5 degrees in the shade with the surface of the track reaching 50 degrees!

The girls vs boys theme continued in the yr 9 team but this time the boys elected to race first. Starting from the front row of the grid, Adam Lunn pulled away from the pack and enjoyed about 2/3 of the 1st lap leading the race, before he was passed by Rotary Racer, Black Bullet, Purple Predator and Jet.  However Adam drove well and held his position as our second driver Michael Brandon took the wheel. Michael quickly put in the fastest lap for the boys, and consistently drove at at over 30 miles per hour for his whole stint, which thankfully was a lot less eventful than his last race! Our final driver for the boys George Hammond, drove seamlessly to a fantastic 7th place finish in an international field featuring some of the top cars. Needless to say we were very happy with this (if a little sweaty!)

Onto the senior category F24+ race. Lizzie Docherty had an electronic speed controller malfunction and had a disastrous start as she watched the rest of the 28 cars on the grid pull away from her! Thankfully something seemed to sort itself at the last second and the chase was on!!! In the one hour race, Lizzie managed to climb from 28th and finished a very respectable 12th.

The final race of the day saw the yr 9 girls team look to keep up their excellent start to the season. Megan Bramley, despite her nerves, quickly set the fastest lap promptly beating the boys speed in the previous race. Fiona Walton carried on the theme and for most of her stint was in 7th or 8th place before finally handing over to Mitzi Boyle who despite the soaring temperature and humidity, managed to finish the race in an enormously pleasing 6th place.....once again beating the yr 9 boys!

Power gets a rollbar and the body shell is coming along

The year 10 team have been hard a work on their new car Plume Power, and with the help of Jane Marie's Uncle Bob, who is a certified welder, we were able to fabricate and fit a lovely new roll bar.

The team then set to work creating initially a nose cone and then the whole body shell of the car out of a huge sheet of corrugated plastic, kindly donated by the builders working next to the school!

Steel rule sticking out to show the required 200mm of foam fitted

Yasmine Glue guns the inside of the shell

All glued!

UP

TURN..

 IT OVER.....

LOWER...

AND ON!

Looks good, now just the tail to build!

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

Formula Student chassis for sale

We ave been donated a formula student chassis (18+yrs university motorsport) which we are looking to sell to raise funding for our Greenpower team...

Projectile gets a head cowling and 1st paint

Spent a happy couple of days preparing Projectile for its forthcoming race at Rockingham raceway in Northamptonshire on Monday.

Starting with the head cowling which should hopefully improve the aerodynamics somewhat.

Constructed from strips of pink foam taped and glued together

Doesn't look too bad (from a distance) The white circles are where Tash and Poppy
smoothed on some filler to help the number roundels stick better (we lost one at Goodwood)

The cowling was coated with one layer of fiberglass before hand brushing on some white Smoothrite....

And after a 1st coat of paint it looks better still...

Here you can also see the aerofoiled roll bar to further reduce drag...

Another coat of white and then some red and silver to finish!

Must try and get some white duck tape for the wheel valve covers on the inside of the wheels...black stands out like a sore thumb!!!

VERY EXCITING FIA FORMULA E LAUNCH!!!!

So on Monday we were extraordinarily privileged to be invited by Jeremy Way the CEO of Greenpower,  to represent the whole of Greenpower at the global launch of the FIA's new Formula E (like formula one but electric cars!!!) During the event, Jeremy launched the new Greenpower kit car, which is to be launched internationally alongside Formula E and will be shipped to 10 local schools from each city that Formula E stages a race in, starting with Bejing in China.

Formula E car

New Greenpower international kit car

The event took place at the prestigious Camden Roundhouse and was attended by about 450 members of
the press, as well as the teams and drivers of Formula E.

Setting up at the Camden Roundhouse

My chosen student representatives Reece and Natasha, were interviewed on the stage along with Jeremy about their Greenpower experiences

On the celebrity sofas, waiting to be interviewed.

Being interviewed about their experiences

We then had the opportunity to mingle with the guests, meeting many of the drivers and team managers of Formula E.....

With Sir Frank Williams or Williams Motorsport

With Jarno Trulli (ex-formula 1 champion) and Michelle Cerruti
New driver for team Trulli GP 

With Alain Prost (ex F1 champion)

With Nicolas Prost Driver for Renault E.Dams

With Karun Chandhok Driver for Mahindra 

With Nick Heidfeld Driver for Venturi

With Bruno Senna Driver for Mahindra

With Katherine Legge Driver for Amlin

We had a fantastic evening and were treated like celebrities, with many real celebrities taking a genuine interest in Greenpower and our students' experiences.

Tash with the Venturi Formula E car