Both the F24 & F24+ finals were held at the Goodwood circuit on Sunday 19th October. The school had only managed to get two cars qualified for the main race but to show there were no hard feelings, several members from these teams came down to help with marshalling etc… All the school cars were scrutineered on the Saturday as this left us free to enjoy ourselves at the hog roast & camping on the Saturday night.
Sunday morning saw us all troop down to the circuit to prepare the cars & get the new drivers out for a few laps practice. The F24+ race started slightly early so a couple of cars had to start from the pit lane. From the start, we could see that Y-Pod? had a problem as it was lapping over a minute slower than it had been going earlier in the year. TSR-4+ was in the lead with Brain and Bentley following closely behind as a three car snake. At the half way mark, we swapped drivers and managed to sort the car so it was now back on the form it had displayed earlier in the year. Unfortunately, by this time we had lost nearly two laps on the leaders and despite being equal or faster on every lap after the change, we only managed to pull back half a lap and so finished a lap & a half behind in fourth place. This disappointing result dropped us from joint first in the championship to third place - disappointing because we could have done better, but then pretty good for the car’s first season.
An amazing 80 cars were wheeled out for the main F24 race - we managed to get Y-Pod? beside R-PodS for the parade, so with Rotary Racer, the school was represented by three cars! The race started on time with most cars getting away cleanly and we were amazed to see R-PodS up near the front, dicing with the leaders. Rotary Racer was not far behind and at the half way mark we were all ecstatic to see the two school cars up there in second & third place. This was with 80 cars on the circuit, not to mention the greater number that had failed to qualify. As the race progressed Rotary Racer & R-PodS swapped places several times, usually during pit stops and the tension was building. As the race drew to a close, Rotary Racer was going faster than ever thanks to their electronic control system, whilst R-PodS had slowed slightly. As the wining car came through the line, there was less than a lap separating the cars in second to seventh place. Rotary Racer had held on to it's pace & managed a fabulous second place, whilst R-PodS, despite being only half a lap behind, had dropped to 5th.
Overall it is an amazing result for the school. 3rd place in the F24+ championship, with two cars in the top 5 of the F24 final. We have lots of plans to improve the cars further … bring on the 2009 series!
