The 2008 season started with two events at Goodwood, a 1.5hr handicap race in the morning, followed by a 4hr ‘corporate challenge’ in the afternoon.
The handicap race was open to all with additional laps being credited to teams depending on their performance last year, with all the new teams starting with the maximum 7 lap lead (equivalent to over half an hour head start).
Chipping Sodbury School was represented by team Fusion who had just finished building their new car in time for the race. After lapping well at the start, gear problems lead to a seriously burnt out motor and a spell in the paddock. They were not alone in suffering this fate as most of the time throughout this race, the smell of burnt out motor was drifting around the paddock! After some frantic work, Fusion was fitted with a new motor and was back on the circuit, where it remained for the remainder of the race finishing in 20th place.
The main race was the inaugural ‘corporate challenge’ where companies were invited to compete with the top 15 school cars. As we had two cars in the top 10 at last years final, Chipping Sodbury School was represented by team Rotary Racer & team R-Pod. The Rotary Racer team had finally finished their all new car with added electronics but retaining the tried & tested single speed drive. R-PodS had been re-painted black to suit our new sponsor (David Reid Homes) and was looking fabulous with the chequered flag graphics. As the gears in R-PodS had given trouble throughout last season & lost us a few places in the final, the car had been converted to a single speed drive for this race.
There were around 15 corporate entries & these ranged from ‘badged’ school cars (such as GR Racers) to complete new builds (such as the local Renishaw team). The two big names were Bentley (competing with a team of apprentices) & the BBC’s Blue Peter (competing with the West Somerset Community College). Our school had Renishaw team with advice & a school visit to see our cars in construction, so we were hoping they would do well.
The race had an uneventful start and settled down with R-PodS lapping slightly quicker than last year, while the Rotary Racer was slightly slower as it was a new car & had been geared to finish rather than to be ambitious. As the race progressed, the Renishaw car suffered a broken battery isolator at the first pit stop & the Blue Peter team was recovered & spent some time in the paddock. The Rotary Racer suffered a puncture late on in the race & this pushed them down the order but they managed to hold on to 9th place. R-PodS had a fault free race to finish a magnificent 5th and achieve the schools first 4hr gold certificate for mileage, they also managed an interview with Blue Peter – a great start to the season.
There were two new drivers, Ben was in his first race with the Rotary Racer & Issy had her first race in R-PodS, the only down side was that Matthew had spent half the recent holiday sanding & painting R-PodS but was ill on the day of the race so had to stay at home…. What bad luck!
