A Nail Biting Race at Bedford Autodrome.

On Sunday the Plume team gathered before dawn in the school car park, climbing wearily aboard the minibus, we departed for Bedford Autodrome for the first race back after the summer holidays.

Having passed scrutineering, Billy Nightingale took Darkside out for a few practise laps, before handing the car over to our least experienced driver Ellie Pennick (she'd only driven once before). As Ellie racked up some decent times in practise and said that she felt confident, the decision was made that she should be the first girl ever in Greenpower history to undertake the longest, final stint in the race (more on that later!).

Come race-time Charlotte Finding drove well from the grid, tackling the sharp first corner consistently and clocking up laps despite being overtaken by some other teams, who as time showed, were pushing too hard too soon!

Charlotte ready for the grid...

After 40 minutes the first driver change allowed Billy Nightingale to get back in the car and he quickly started to gain places, climbing over the course of his drive to 11th place.

A second driver change and a fresh set of batteries and Kirt Cowell rapidly set the fastest lap so far, but sadly whilst tussling with Philip Morant's Fireblade, Kirt suffered a black flag for "cornering too enthusiastically"........harsh I felt!

Despite this setback, Kirt continued to gain positions reaching 7th place by the end of his 40 minutes. The next driver change to Carlos de Costa was frankly disgracefully slow and cost us quite a few places....much more practise needed I think!!! Carlos lapped well and despite managing to spin the car twice on the now slightly damp first corner, he maintained position, battling hard with several other teams throughout his session.

The final battery and driver change went much more smoothly and Ellie quickly settled in to her marathon session, clocking up faster and faster lap times and eventually setting our fastest lap time (much to the frustration of Kirt).

Despite also spinning on the first corner a couple of times, Ellie battled on and managed to climb to 4th place before a serious crash between two other teams temporarily stopped the race!!! Thankfully, both drivers were shaken, but uninjured. The race got underway again with only 10 minutes remaining! Despite Ellie lapping faster than both 3rd and 2nd place cars, we simply ran out of time, finishing less than half a lap behind 3rd place.......WHAT an exciting race!!!!

Special mention should go to Natasha Layley, who despite serious injury during the summer holiday, came along to support the team. We wish her a speedy and full recovery.