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.
