The last qualification race of the year was the Greater London heat, held at the Top Gear circuit, Dunsfold park. There was a substantial grid for both the F24 & F24+ races, so with a number of 'big name' schools present, we were not expecting a fantastic result. Team Fusion were debuting their new car, Rotary Racer had a new driver & The Pod Movement were mainly after driver experience in traffic.
As with this race last year, the drive down was foggy, but the forecast was good. The sun was shining well as the cars went through scrutineering & there was very little wind. Team Fusion had to perform some remedial work before getting through scrutineering, but managed to get out for a brief practice. Unfortunately, their practice ended with a steering problem, but Seaford College offered to take the car back to school & rebuild the steering. Both the Rotary Racer team & The Pod Movement had been testing batteries before the race & found them to be well down on capacity, so a good showing was looking even more in doubt.
For once, Y-Pod?! didn’t manage to get on the front row of the F24+ grid, so we were starting from the middle of the field. As we expected, ‘Simple Trug’ shot into a clear lead with Y-Pod?! soon half a lap behind, the rest of the field was strung out behind with only ‘Super Swoosh 3000’ in real contention. After a few laps, ‘Super Swoosh 3000’ came in with chain problems, so our second place was looking fairly secure. At the half way mark, Joe handed the car to Alex and things started to get a bit more interesting as ‘Super Swoosh 3000’ was now back out on the track & lapping fast. Given the state if our batteries, we were unable to make any impression on ‘Simple Trug’ who took a well deserved win, we managed to keep second, and maintain our joint 3rd position in the F24+ championship.
With a bit more planning, we managed to get both Rotary Racer & R-PodSssc on the front of the grid and as the flag fell, they both quickly pulled ahead of the field. Rotary Racer managed to pull past R-PodSssc on the main straight but some inspired driving by Issy, saw R-PodSssc re-take the lead before the end of the first lap. There then followed a tense half hour as both school cars repeatedly swapped the lead, taking it in turns to be held up with slower cars. After the first round of pit stops, R-PodSssc had managed to pull out a lead on Rotary Racer and that was how it remained for the mid portion of the race. Seaford College eventually returned with a repaired car for Team Fusion and they rejoined for the last hour of the race, by this time, the batteries on R-PodSssc were failing this allowed Rotary Racer to take the lead. Things were getting tense with several fast cars on the circuit & us wondering if R-PodSssc would make the end of the race, Team Fusion were lapping reliably and regularly overtaking R-PodSssc. Thanks to their sophisticated electronics, Rotary Racer had been able to conserve energy & were lapping steadily at the front.
As the race drew to a close, many cars on the circuit were slowing, Rotary Racer kept lapping steadily & took a well deserved first place, along with the fastest lap of the day, R-PodSssc managed to hold onto second, only missing out on the fastest lap of the day by a few fractions of a second. Despite only being on the track for a quarter of the race, Team Fusion achieved a reliable run with two cars behind them (including one from Seaford College) - with 7 teams not even managing to even make the race, it is a credit to Team Fusion.
In recognition of the assistance they gave, Seaford College were awarded the 'Spirit of Greenpower' award - an amazing effort to help the school – a big thanks from all of us.
As with last year there was only one lone car & driver making the long trek up to Liverpool for the F24+ race. The forecast was for showers, our batteries were very much down on capacity & with Brian & Zebedee both entered, we very nearly stayed at home. As it was Alex's last season, the Aintree track is superb & everyone seems very friendly up there, in the end, we decided it was worth the journey.
The race started slightly early and despite both Brian & Zebedee jumping the start, 4 cars were all in line as they entered the first corner, as they went up the hill, Brian & Zebedee were slipstreaming each other & pulling away. Alex thought he wouldn't see them again for a while but as Y-Pod?! rounded the last corner before the main straight, he found Brian & Zebedee only just in front & Y-Pod?! gaining. As they all came back into view from the paddock, we were astounded to see that Y-Pod?! was in front with all three cars almost nose to tail. Zebedee soon re- took the lead, followed closely by Brian, with Y-Pod?! hot on their tails. That was the last we saw of Zebedee for a while as they suffered battery connection problems, so for the next few laps, Brian & Y-Pod?! swapped the lead as the two cars were faster on different parts of the circuit. Alex decided that given the poor state of the batteries, he had better throttle back & accept a likely second place, so it looked like becoming a fairly dull race after the early excitement. Just as we were putting the lap board out to mark the half way point, Brian came off the circuit into the paddock - Y-Pod?! was not far behind so we were now in the lead…! After a lap & a half, Brian rejoined the race & slowly started to haul in our lead, Zebedee was back out & storming around but had lost too much time to be a threat to our position. With 5 minutes left to go, Brian had almost caught up but was going almost as slowly as us. As the cars came back into view for what we hoped would be the last lap, Brian had crept past & Alex was faced with a choice between conserving the batteries & to allow another lap or going for it & re-taking the lead. Alex decided on a final push, so as he rounded the last corner he was in the lead but the batteries were almost finished, the person finishing the race was still consulting with the timekeepers so disappointment set in, as we were sure Brian would take the lead if the race went for another lap. At the last moment the time ran out & the chap ran to the track side & waved the chequered flag - we had won our first F24+ race of the season & made it two wins at Aintree in a row… well & truly astounding!
Our local race saw all four school teams represented, but unfortunately team Fusion had not managed to complete their car so were there to help with marshalling, rather than racing. Wacky Racer were hoping to better their qualification mileage of 84 miles with a few changes & slim tyres. Rotary Racer were aiming to achieve their 2nd consecutive win at the circuit but had some new drivers to train. The Pod Movement were hoping for reliability with Y-Pod?! in F24+ and R-PodS SSC in F24, the main hope was to try & maintain their second qualification place for the final.
The F24+ race started promptly with a reasonable field of 8 cars. As expected, Brian & Zebedee took an early lead with Y-Pod?! not far behind and the other cars further back. After a few laps, the back cover started coming off Zebedee but the driver showed no sign of slowing till they were eventually forced back into the paddock with a puncture & to have the back taped up. This left us to take over second place. The rest of the race was fairly uneventful & we held second place till the end, despite our driver change. We were surprised to see the car stop immediately after the chequered flag & later found out we had two punctures in the rear tyres - luckily they only happened on the last lap so we managed to hold onto our second place.
The F24 race started well with Zebedee pulling into an early lead, closely followed by Rotary Racer and R-PodS SSC not far behind. As the race panned out, Zebedee was pulled off the circuit with a sheared wheel bolt - not helped by the bumpy nature of the track. This allowed Rotary Racer into the lead and R-PodS SSC into second, with Wacky Racer doing well further down the field. A rapidly improving SC07 soon overhauled R-PodS SSC so we gave up hope of a 1 - 2 finish & started to think a 1 - 3 might be possible. Wacky Racer had been doing well but along with many other cars, suffered a puncture and lost a lot of time changing tyres, by this time Zebedee was back on the track & scorching around the circuit.
As the race drew to a close, Zebedee was overhauling R-PodS SSC and we started to think our third place was in doubt - on the last lap our fears were realised as we were overtaken, having to be satisfied with fourth. Rotary Racer didn't falter & held the lead continuously since Zebedee's problems - Wacky Racer finished a disappointing 26th place after their punctures but had some consolation in that they were ahead of both the Furze Platt cars and only 11 miles behind TSR4.
The weather was wonderful and it was a truly Great Western Race…!
