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.
