A Roll, Results & Retirement

Castle Combe was the first race for ages where all five Chipping Sodbury School cars were present. Unfortunately, Wacky Racer did not have enough drivers so they loaned their car to an independent team founded by some ex Chipping Sodbury members, Chain reaction, who had not completed their car.
Practice is usually an uneventful time so we were all surprised to see the ambulance go racing out soon after it started, with sirens blazing.
It transpired that Rotary Racer had rolled at quarry corner, thankfully no-one was hurt but the car had suffered damage & was excluded from the race.

The F24+ race started on time & as expected Zebedee & Brian pulled out an early lead with the Tything Tornadoes & Y-Pod?! close behind. A the end of the first lap, Y-Pod?! had pulled into third place and the positions remained set for the remainder of the race. Just before the finish, Zebedee & Brian lapped the Tything Tornadoes, with Y-Pod?! half a lap behind in third.

In F24, with Rotary Racer out of the race, Zebedee & Brian were unchallenged for the lead. Having dropped the gearing on R-PodS SSC for the Castle Combe hill, we were amazed to find ourselves in third place. We held this position for much of the race, occasionally dropping behind the Simple Trug clone, Maltings Missile.
Despite working hard on their car all over the winter, Team Fusion had to rush to complete their car for the race. After getting through scrutineering, their race started with high hopes, only to be dashed at the start line as their car stopped with a detached chain. They managed to get back out, but a combination of tyre and brake problems resulted in a burnt out motor and a rather sad retirement.
Wacky Racers car went well, achieving a respectable 20th place, pretty good as their car was a last minute rescue.
The race was drawing to a close & we had scheduled one last pit stop for R-PodS SSC. Unfortunately as we entered the pit lane we were stuck behind a very (very) slow car loosing nearly a lap in the time it took to negotiate the pit lane. To make matters worse, it transpired that the driver of this car had only stopped for a drink..!
We were sure this additional delay had cost us third place but were very pleased to find that the Simple Trug clone had stopped on the last lap, allowing us to take our first podium of the year…

A good result for the school given the disastrous start for two of the school cars. We came away with two third places and retained the Renishaw cup for the best placed Gloucestershire car.

Goodwood Goodwin Goodspin

Three Chipping Sodbury School cars made the trek down to Goodwood for the Central South Regional Heat in June.

As usual, the weather was good we got the cars scrutineered in record time. Y-Pod?! was rapidly installed on the F24+ grid with little time to spare as we all crossed our fingers as the race started. At the end of the first lap, The Tything Tornadoes crossed the line first with Y-Pod?! in close pursuit. At the end of the main straight Y-Pod?! overtook The Tything Tornadoes, followed closely by Mandrill & this set the scene for much of the remainder of the race. For lap after lap, Mandrill kept close watch, never far behind until the last few laps when Y-Pod?! managed to pull a comfortable lead and claim the first F24+ result of the year.

In the F24 race, the school was represented by Rotary Racer & R-PodS SSC with a significant grid of cars, promising an exciting race. Rotary Racer were aiming to get a platinum award & quickly pulled out a significant lead. R-PodS SSC was struggling to match last years form but was still managing to hold onto second place as the race settled down.
There were some very inexperienced drivers present & we witnessed some ridiculously fast entries down the pit lane. As R-PodS SSC was approaching the pits in the second half of the race, one of these drivers followed us in, far too fast. The marshals gestured for him to slow down but our driver slowed even more, thinking they were gesturing to him… This resulted in our battery pod being rear-ended, thankfully with no serious damage.
As the race drew to a close, we were told that they may be calling our car in as it appeared to have a bucked wheel – it turned out that we had two flat tyres. Our driver carried on regardless, thinking he could get to the pits but eventually the tyre partly came off, resulting in a locked wheel and a very alarming 360deg spin off the circuit.
With R-PodS SSC recovered & new tyres fitted we were back on the circuit & ploughing back up the field. The only remaining incident was a minor collision as a slower car swerved in an attempt to avoid being overtaken – they managed to hit the inside of the driver pod but again the car only suffered a minor scratch.
As the race finished, Rotary Racer took the flag after an uneventful race, we were amazed to find R-PodS SSC had pulled back up to fifth place, an amazing result considering we had two collisions, two punctures & a spin.