Goldwood

Three school teams made their way to Goodwood for the Central South Heat. The weather forecast had been bad all week but we drove down in reasonable weather with high hopes for a good day. Wacky Racer were racing their 2008 car and looked great with their new logos on their overalls, Rotary Racer were debuting their new car (only finished the day before), while The Pod Movement were racing "Y-Pod?!" in F24+ and "R-PodS SSC" (after some hasty repairs) in F24.

The F24+ race was a disaster (for the second consecutive year) with the car failing on the start line due to a chain coming off, this was soon fixed but we were a lap & half down by the time we re-joined the race. The first stint with the first driver went well with the car flying around & a suspected race fastest lap, but the batteries seemed to be fading so the first pit stop was a bit early. The second driver took over but soon came back in with what appeared to be flat batteries. This was soon traced to a bad connection (burning a hole through the surrounding wood) so the car was back out again & storming around. The eventual result of fourth place was a bit disappointing but they had both enjoyed the driving & dispite the car only being out for 50 minutes (of the 90) it was a mere 1 lap off second.

The F24 race started on time with a very substantial grid lined up and both Rotary Racer & "R-PodS SSC" on the front of the grid. At the start, our second S car soon pulled away to an impressive lead with Rotary Racer close behind. Due to a misunderstanding, R-PodS SSC came in to pit half way through the first driver’s session and this gave the lead to the Rotary Racer, only for R-PodSssc to take it back at the next driver change. With half an hour to go the positions were the same with R-PodS SSC having pulled out a 2 lap lead over the Rotary Racer. The last few laps were very tense, with R-PodS SSC needing a battery change right at the end. At the chequered flag R-PodS SSC crossed the line in first place, with Rotary Racer a lap behind in second. This race was the first F24 race R-PodS has ever won and it is the first time in 3 years that The Pod Movement has automatically qualified for The National Final. 

We were happy enough to have got a school 1,2 finish at Goodwood but to really add to our result R-PodS received the “best presented team” award and Y-Pod?! received the “most innovative use of recycled materials” award. A medal haul of 3 awards at one race is the best result The Pod Movement has had in its 5 season history.

With all this action happening at the front of the field it is easy to forget about the 3rd Chipping Sodbury team racing. For only their second 4 hour endurance race, the Wacky Racers did very well. They showed excellent reliabiltity (Except from a minor issue leaving the grid), finishing a highly credible 9th place.

Grrrrrrockingham

The Pod Movement were the only school team to make the trek to Rockingham with their two cars "Y-Pod?!" and "R-PodS SSC". Unfortunately one of our regular drivers couldn’t make the race so we 'borrowed' Gareth (one of the Rotary Racer drivers) for the event - a chance for him to try one of their competitor’s cars first hand… Our usual van wasn't available so we had been building a trailer for the few weeks before the race - this was only finished at 1:00 on the morning of the race so car preparation had to take a second place with unfortunate consequences...

This race was held on a week day as part of the learning grid initiative, so apart from the impressive field of 48 cars, there were plenty of spectators who were there visiting the learning grid events. Both cars were quickly through scrutineering & Y-Pod?! was asked to demonstrate the correct pit stop maneuvour during the drivers briefing, unfortunately this took longer than expected, so the car was late of the start of the race and had to start from the pit lane, losing at least half a lap. The F24+ race was uneventful with Y-Pod?! managing to claw its way back up to fourth place, with third in sight if the race had continued.

The F24 race started well with "R-PodS SSC" in the lead after the first lap, soon to be overhauled by Zebedee (from Sandbach school) who shot into an unassailable lead. After 3 hours, the situation was the same with "R-PodS SSC" in a very secure second place & everyone started talking about how dull the race was… this is always a bad thing to do, for at the next pit stop the motor twisted & the chain came off… a weld on the motor mount bracket had failed but we managed to brace it with a spanner, cable tied in place to stop it falling out. The car was back in the race & we were soon back in second again only to have another unscheduled stop with a puncture - after this was fixed we had dropped to fifth place with less than half an hour to go. All was going well & we had even briefly overtaken the race winner when we had a second puncture & had to be retuned on the recovery truck. At the end we had managed to make up a place and achieve fourth.

A final thanks to Gareth for standing in & driving so well in a strange car...