Glorious Goodwood

With all 4 Chipping Sodbury cars qualifying for the Formula 24 National final it was going to be an exciting race. Rotary Racer was looking to maintain the performance that saw it qualify in third place, R pod was a keen as ever to improve and prove it was capable of bettering its Gold performance at the Avon heat, S Factor was in buoyant mood after winning the Dorset heat several weeks earlier and the Aderley Flyers were looking for a good race consolidating the year's efforts.

Also up for grabs was the best presented team award, R Pod had pulled out all the stops for this with a variety of show stopping displays and Rotary Racer would have won the biggest banner award if there was such a thing.

At eleven o'clock precisely the race got under way, as expected the streamliners came round first but Rotary Racer and R Pod were mixing it with the best of them, after an hour Rotary Racer lost it's canopy which slowed it down slightly and R Pod was putting in consistent lap times despite trying out a new driver as Sam “one of the regular drivers” had broken his fingers in a push bike accident and was unable to drive. 

At the mid point in the race Rotary Racer had slipped down the field a few places due to a couple of incidents such as the chain coming off and a few excursions onto the grass but was still running strong, R Pod was still churning out the laps but S factor was not performing as expected as a hike in the gear ratio was proving to much for the batteries and the Aderley Flyers had suffered a broken weld and a puncture.

As the race drew to a close and the batteries started to fade, Rotary Racer had crept back up the field and was in a race with two other cars for fourth place, R Pod had done well and was holding on to tenth place but the old problem of fading batteries was causing a few worried looks, S Factor had slipped down the field as the batteries couldn't cope with the increased gearing and the Aderley Flyers had fixed their problems and put in some solid laps.

At Five o'clock the chequered flag came out and the race was over, the Rotary Racer lost out in the battle for fourth by two laps and finished a very respectable sixth, but better still it had increased its milage from Castle Combe to 168 miles, R Pod finished in tenth place also increasing it's best milage to 154 miles, S Factor was 54th with 117 miles and Aderley Flyers managed 75th place and 60 miles.

Dunsfold Deluge

We arrived at the Top Gear circuit all excited to be driving on the hallowed tarmac. The perimeter road frightened us as it was in such a poor state but the actual circuit was fine. The race used only half of the figure of 8 circuit as someone seemed to think it would be dangerous if the cars had to cross in the middle....? Anyway, before scruitineering we had the first torrential downpour with the wind ripping several Gazebos & tents away. We decided to wear our old (small by now) blue overalls & keep the red ones dry to try & stop the car misting up. The race started badly as our pusher (who will remain nameless to protect the guilty) was in a dream & forgot to fully turn the key..... We had hardly touched the car over the summer & the Velcro was getting fairly worn on the window - the strong wind blew it out fairly soon but it was recovered & was fine (the advantages of polycarbonate). Our drivers enjoyed the circuit & it had examples of some of top gear's escapades parked near the hangers. Our first pit stop took ages as we hadn't practiced since the last race but we improved for our second stop & first driver change. After the second recovery of the window (which we now taped in to stop a third loss) we were getting into a good rhythm when the race was stopped due to the crash. After the troubles & two extra pit stops, we had we were amazed to claim a 5th place, beating all the F35 cars! 
We had a quick practice after the race as Matthew had joined the team & it was his first F24 race since graduating form the Old Sodbury Goblin (winner of the 2005 Goblin race of champions & the 2006 slalom).
When the race was cancelled, we sat in the van with the wind and rain around us, drinking tea & chatting while the other teams packed away.... overall, a memorable day despite all the wind & rain.