Race Report 
Fireblade Wins!
After the success of achieving 4th place at the 2008 National Final, we were
invited to the Corporate Challenge which took place during the Season Opener.
This is where Companies are challenged to build cars to the Formula 24
regulations and race them against the Top School Teams from 2008.
Therefore, the 2009 Season started off with the Fordingbridge Season Opener.
This is run as a 90 minute sprint race, using only one set of batteries. This
was completely out of our comfort zone having never taken part in a sprint race.
With a 26 strong field and the current sprint champions, Trinity School, running
two cars, we had an outside chance of a top 5 finish.
Both cars were ready for the Season Opener. It was just a matter of getting
the scrutineering stickers. It was a baptism of fire for the new Year 7 Team
running Franc N Stein. The Year 7 team, with the support of Mr. McCain and Mr.
Barker, had stripped and rebuilt Franc with a new Silver spandex body. The team
for the day consisted of Rebecca, Oscar, Adam, Georgina and Harry. They had a
little work to complete before getting their first scrutinering sticker.
For practice Fireblade had Dan L at the wheel after his fearless performance
at Goodwood in the National Final. During this we had an extra 4 teeth on the
sprocket to see what the car could do. However, the extra 4 teeth did not seem
to be making much of a positive impact. The team therefore made the call in the
interim to change the sprocket and then rush the car round to the starting grid.
When the air horn sounded at 11am the cars where set off row by row. With
Fireblade and Franc side by side in the 5th row, it meant both cars were going
to have to get through some serious traffic to contend for the top positions. As
they headed up the hill we could see Fireblade over taking 10 cars before the
first corner. Franc set off well and kept good pace. This gave the Year Sevens
their first taste of the competition. As the cars came through the chicane on
the first lap of the race, it was TSR-2 from Trinity School in Croydon who took
the early lead, with their second car TSR-4 settling into third place.
Between the two Trinity cars was Fireblade, who in second place was determinedly
chasing down the leader TSR-2.
As the race entered the final 20 minutes, there was a real battle for first
place. Throughout the event the top three places had swapped between TSR-2,
TSR-4 and Fire Blade. As the cars came in to the pits for driver changes timing
was going to be everything. As TSR-2 made its final driver change Fireblade shot
in to 2nd place. Then on the penultimate lap Fireblade took TSR-4 after the
chicane as a cheering Timing Team were going crazy on the side lines. It was
Fire Blade who took the chequered flag, just ahead of TSR -4.
Franc did extremely well finishing in 14th place in a very competitive field.
This was excellent considering it was the first competitive race with its new
team. It gained them some valuable experience that they can take forward to
Rockingham in June.
We then went on to race in the Corporate Challenge. Fireblade was going to
have to fight hard to compete with the best. It was an impressive line up with
12 Corporate Teams taking up the challenge of building cars to race against the
top 15 cars from the 2008 Final. In the line up were Jaguar, Landrover, Prodrive,
Fordingbridge and Nuvinci.
From the start Fireblade contended well. Within the first hour and a half we
held on to 5th place through out and were within a lap of the leaders. However,
at this point we were losing time on our first set of batteries and falling back
from the front runners. On the 2 hour mark we completed our last driver change
and came out retaining our 5th place. However we had slipped 4 laps behind 1st
and 2laps behind 4th.
We retained our 5th place throughout the last two hours and kept the gap
between 1st the same and gained on 4th by a lap. This meant falling short of 4th
by just 1 minute.
Well what a successful day. 1st, 5th, and 14th place.
A record mileage and lots of smiles all round. Roll on Rockingham where
we hope to continue setting records.Read the official race report and see final standings on the Greenpower
website:
Race Pictures
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Photography: S. Hodge, N. Tate, M. Barker. All Rights Reserved. |
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