On Sunday 26th April four cars from Chipping Sodbury School’s Greenpower team travelled to the Goodwood racing circuit to take part in the traditional opening event of the season.
There were two races on the day, the first was the Season Opener, open to all cars and a 90 minute race with only one set of batteries. Team ‘Wacky Racers’ carried the flag for CSS and pitted their wits in a field of 23 cars from schools across the UK. At the end of 90 minutes they came home in a highly credible 8th place having completed 15 laps totalling 36 miles. This was a tight race with the winners completing only 3 laps more and many seasoned cars behind them at the finishing line.
The second race of the day was the Corporate Challenge. This race consisted of the top 15 cars from the National Final racing against 11 entries from various companies in the UK. This year saw entries from Jaguar/Landrover, Renishaw, MajorLift and Prodrive amongst others. CSS fielded three cars in this 4 hour endurance race, Rotary Racer, R-Pods and S-Pod all took to the line with not only a keen rivalry between themselves but also extreme rivalry against regular opponents from other schools from across the country.
The race itself was a hard fought nail-biter. Rotary Racer and R-Pods had the front of the field firmly in their sights as they fought for a high position throughout the race. At the end of four hours R-Pods won through with a stunning 2nd place finish behind a corporate entry from Greenpower’s own scrutineers. Rotary Racer had a highly respectable 4th place, equalling their distance in the Final, behind another Corporate entry from Fordingbridge. They also picked up the IMeche Best Engineered Car award. Despite some early mechanical problems, S-Pod climbed the field recording some strong lap times and covering over 93 miles. The relatively lowly position of 14th place reflected the quality of the field, but even this was ahead of the National Final winner and both Jaguar/Landrover, Renishaw and Prodrive
Significantly, Chipping Sodbury School’s R-Pods and Rotary Racer were the top two placed school entry cars in the country. R-Pods achieved the feat of 50 laps which has only been achieved by 2 other cars in the history of Greenpower’s 4 hour endurance race. Neither of which will take part in the rest of this season’s events.
As the 2009 seasons takes off CSS are superbly positioned as leaders of the pack and looking forward to a promising (if somewhat nerve-wracking) season.
