The 2010 Greenpower season opened in style at the fabulous Goodwood circuit. There were two races on the day, with the season opener as a 1.5hr race followed by the corporate challenge in the usual 4 hr format.
There was a good turnout for the first race but R-PodS SSC was the only Chipping Sodbury team entered, after Team Fusion were unable to attend. At one time, it had looked like The Pod Movement would not be at the event due to a serious illness with one of the team, but a last minute push in the week before the race saw the car ready. Despite the extra power available due to the shorted race distance, there was a max speed limit imposed to reduce the risk of cars going too fast so it was looking to be an interesting race. The main excitement in the race was the issuing of several time penalties to the top teams for exceeding the lap speed limit. At the end of the race, R-PodS SSC had managed to achieve second place despite some seriously old batteries.
The main event was the corporate challenge and Chipping Sodbury was represented by both the Rotary Racer & R-PodS SSC. We had intended to launch T-Pod at this event as a third entry, but this has been delayed due to illness, so we brought Y-Pod?! along (with Alex) but unfortunately only as a static display (both of them). As the race unfolded, Rotary Racer was storming round but R-PodS SSC was putting in some disappointing lap times compared to last year. The race was again fairly uneventful despite being the first race that the younger members of The Pod Movement had run with out the help of any of the older team members. As the flag came down, Rotary Racer achieved a well deserved 3rd place, and unfortunately R-PodS SSC had stopped on the circuit, having eventually to settle for 9th place – still not bad considering the level of the competition.
As the awards were presented we were well pleased to be presented with the most innovative use of materials for R-PodS SSC. The school came back with 3 trophies – a great collection of opening honours…!
