Goodwood National Final Race Report

“Goodwood National Final Race Report” wow! Back in May, when we didn’t even have a car to race, I’d have been very surprised that in October I’d be typing those words. After a very late start this year’s season has turned out to be our most successful ever - 3 heats, 3 awards, 1 final and 219 miles of racing.

The week leading to the final did not run smoothly. While the team were being fitted for new helmets at Colchester Motorcycles our school minibus was broken into and the student's bags taken. The thief got away with a collection of schoolbooks and homework diaries - clearly French homework was not his intended haul and the bags were found dumped the following day. More significantly, a broken window and no replacement glass left us without transport for the final. Fortunately St Benedict's college were able to loan us theirs for the weekend after some last minute arrangements. Thanks go to Mrs Parker and to St. Benedicts for their help. The disruption caused by the theft left us with much less preparation time than we'd planned for, so the last couple of days were much more fraught than usual, even by our standards!

The trip to Goodwood demanded a 5 o'clock start from school so we left in the foggy darkness Sussex bound. The day dawned brightly as we reached Goodwood and our allocated paddock. The team quickly organised themselves and joined the lengthy queue for scrutineering. Franc N. received his all important sticker without any problems and we prepared for practise. Before we'd left we knew we had problems with a massive voltage drop between the solar panels and our motor cooling fans - the first job was to replace the cable with a heavier gauge lead which solved the problem but took up some of the allocated practise time. About to go out, we found Franc was suffering from a puncture! A very quick wheel change later (well practised now after the tyre troubles in Kent), we reached the circuit...just in time for practise to finish, without turning a wheel in anger.

Before the race all of the teams take part in the driver (and car) parade along the main straight. The team looked splendid in new overalls, helmets and with a banner printed for us by Curtissigns.com  of Colchester. Franc N, with Josh at the wheel lined up on the 75 car grid ready for Lord March to start the four hour race. Only 1 lap into the race, Franc started to have problems with his main fuse blowing - a quick change to a lighter driver did not help the problem. Recovering to the paddock, the problem was quickly traced to a loose connection in the main power circuit. Suddenly the lack of practice had cost us 27 minutes of racing. Connection fixed, Franc was back out and began to lap the lengthy Goodwood circuit in a respectable and consistent 6 and a half minutes. With Franc running reliably and driver and battery changes going smoothly we began to climb up the standings from dead last at the end of the first hour through to an overall 60th place. But for the time lost at the start we should have been close to the top 50.

After the race we were very pleased to be awarded the Environment Agency Greenest Car Award. An extremely prestigious title amongst Greenpower competitors.

Race Pictures

In the Paddock
	Our pit paddock	Puncture!
Time for a quick team photo	Always try to impress the judges!
We were running the first version of our self-built datalogger for the first time on the car - allowing us to instantly diagnose that the car wasn't working properly!
Driver's Parade
Franc N. and the team in the driver's parade.
The Race
And...	....they're...	off!
	Neeeeeeoowwwww......
		...and at the finish - still moving quickly enough to out pace the photographer