Race Report

4th overall for Fireblade

Team wins Prodrive Marketing Award

The Goodwood national final arrived at last and our preparation and organisation allowed us to leave for home on Friday afternoon with high hopes for a successful weekend. The team arrived at the prestigious Goodwood Motor Circuit and was calm and collected as they unpacked and organised their pits, having got themselves drilled for this in the workshop on Friday. This meant we could get the cars unloaded and readied quickly to join the rapidly lengthening scrutineering queue. When it came to our turn we sailed through with out a problem and not one note in the log book!

All 75 cars took part in a drivers’ parade along the start/finish straight. The team lined up, half with Fireblade (starting in 15th) and half with Franc N. Stein (starting in 55th). The team looked very smart in their newly dyed overalls, each with their names etched using the laser cutter and our racing logo on the front. They all looked very proud of what they had already achieved.

After a few words from Dave Richards, chairman of Prodrive and patron of Greenpower, Lord March started the race with a flourish of the Union flag. Fireblade was on the third row of the grid looking to sneak into the top 10. Franc was starting on the 11th row looking to fight off the other Colchester schools from behind! The flag came down the race was on! Fireblade had a slow start, dropping a couple of places off the line but as it went up the hill towards the first corner we had got back into 15th. Franc N started off well but looked slow going down the straight. After the first lap it was clear that “The Phoenix”, last year’s winner and this year’s pole-sitter, wanted to maintain its crown having lapped Franc N. after the first lap. Fireblade came through the chicane in 13th spot, welcomed by a cheering timing team. Everyone played their part during the race, the timing team kept on tracking the lap times, the pit board was always up to date relaying information to the drivers and the pit crew kept the cars going and making good driver changes. After the first hour things were looking good with Fireblade now up into 9th position and lapping consistently at around the 5 minute mark. At this rate we were on target for a record mileage of over 105 miles, enough to secure our first gold mileage award.

Unfortunately Franc N was not doing so well down in 70th place slipping back 15 places from where he had started, lapping at around the 8 minute mark, well off the pace of the front runners. We were trying out a different pit strategy to try and help Franc N to beat last year’s mileage and possibly claim a bronze award. The new idea was a driver and battery change at the 100 minute mark, then a second battery change 20 minutes before the end, hoping the batteries would recover a little in the break.

In Fireblade it was business as usual, with two smooth driver changes before the two hour mark then one battery change at half time. Coming up to the 100 minute mark Franc N. came in to get a fresh set of batteries and now started to climb its way back up the table. Fireblade at this time was battling in the top 10 establishing itself as one of the front runners. During the race the cars were given a red flag and the race was stopped for about 18 minutes, whilst a spectator needed medical treatment. During this time “The Phoenix”, which had been leading, went in the paddock to be repaired. This meant one of the cars from Sandbach, “Zebedee”, was now leading the race by 1 lap from the two cars from Trinity School “TSR-2" and “TSR- 4”. Eltham College with its two cars “Evo 3A” and Evo-4” along with 2 cars from Chipping Sodbury “R-PodS” and “Rotary Racer” rounded out the top 7. Fireblade was right ‘in the mix’ just one lap behind the leader at the half way mark and going into its first battery change. We came into the pits in 7th place but due to a battery clip failing we lost vital time on the cars around us, coming out of the pits in 9th but with fresh batteries and the top 8 cars all within 2 laps of each other, it was all to race for!

Fireblade worked hard to close the gap on the other cars with some great overtaking in the chicane! During this next hour we worked our way up into 6th position. Franc N. was also making progress, working its way back up the field just breaking into 60th place with an hour to go. At the top, it was very close with the 2nd to 8th place cars all on the same lap. Fireblade was still in 6th and closing down on 5th place by a few seconds a lap. Fingers were still crossed for finishing in the top 5, with “Evo 3A” now less than a minute in front in 5th and “R-podS” 2 minutes further down the road. Will they need to pit again?

Going into the last 30 mins saw “R-podS” go into the pits for a final driver change. Where were Evo3A and Fireblade? As “R-podS” pulled out of the pits we could see Fireblade chasing down “Evo3A” in the home straight using the car’s slip stream to get a little extra speed to get in front just before the first corner. The timing team rang the driver to let them know that “R-podS” was the next target for 4th spot and that the difference was just 50 seconds, meaning we had to make up at least 10 seconds a lap. We needed some luck and a Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel! Going into the last lap we had closed the gap to 10 seconds behind 4th and the team were on their feet cheering on the driver down the home straight. Coming up to the last corner we could see Fireblade on the tail of “R-podS” with some traffic in-front going into the chicane - it was going to be close! We could see Zebedee coming through to take the chequered flag meaning this was our last chance and we would miss out on 3rd by just over a minute. Coming out of the chicane it was nail biting as we where carrying more speed out of the last comer and got in front of “R-podS” on the final straight. They moved into our slip stream to catch up and made a move about 100 metres from the line but we held them off to take a very close 4th place.

In the end Fireblade broke its PB mileage by getting a gold award for 110miles and 4th place at its first ever national final. The winner Zebedee managed to finish 2 laps in-front completing 115miles showing there is still work to be done in the off season! The quality of this final was fantastic with the top 15 cars all managing over 100miles! Franc managed to get back on terms with its qualifying position of 55th getting a respectable 72 miles, only just missing out on a bronze award but improving on its 60th position from last year.
The team were just a little disappointed to have been so very close to getting onto the podium but were very pleased when during the prize giving they were awarded the Marketing Award from Prodrive for the hard work they had put into newsletters and their website. The award was judged by Prodrive’s own marketing department and the prize is a tour of the Prodrive factory in Banbury, something all of the team are already relishing.

Read the official race report and see final standings on the Greenpower website:

• Greenpower National Final 2008 Race Report

Race Pictures

See more pictures here