Greenpower zooms to Dunsfold race track
On 26/06/11 Rotary Racer, R-PodS, BiPod and Chain Reaction of Chipping Sodbury School, took to the race track and managed to come home with 2 podium finishes! RPodS took part in the formula 24+ race whilst all of the other teams joined in with the formula 24, 4 hour endurance race.
R-PodS, driven by Alex Hunter, flew round the track managing to come 2nd overall. R-PodS completed the race managing to complete 52 laps of the 0.78 mile race circuit. Alex drove exceptionally well and the whole team were proud of how well he drove.
Rotary Racer also drove very well manage to come first in their 4 hour endurance race. Over the whole time they managed to complete 139 laps which is equivalent to 108 miles – a new record for the race circuit. The team had 3 new drivers to the circuit who all drove very well, keeping the car up in first position for most of the race. Rotary Racers first driver, Dawn, took a flying start to the race managing to get the car into first position after a few laps. After Dawn came Tom, then Louise, Gareth, Steph and finally ending with Ben. The last team member, Dan, helped the team by controlling the telemetry which was in charge of the cars speed.
At the end of the race the runnings were very close with Rotary Racer and another team – Fireblade – battling it off for first and second place. At the end though, it was down to the amount of current left in the batteries and that is how Rotary Racer took the trophy for this race.
This was the first race for TPM’s (the pod movement’s) new car, Bipod. The team and the car did very well, starting in first place and ending in 4th. The team all drove very well, even though their car was covered in gaffer tape! The car and team managed to complete 124 laps in total which equals to 96.7 miles. A huge congratulation to BiPods – especially as it was the first circuit for their new car!
Chain Reaction was the last car to take to Dunsfold race track. Chain Reaction also managed to do incredibly well managing to gain 23rd place with 87 laps and 67.9 miles. However, the team had managed to gear their car up too high, meaning the batteries died very quickly. The teams first set of batteries only lasted 45 minutes when they were meant to last 80! The team over came this problem, changing the gearing during the race and managing to finish the race with ‘some’ power left in their batteries.
Overall, all of the cars and teams did incredibly well managing to come back to school with two trophies and some happy drivers. Congratulations to all the teams and thank-you to all of the sponsors who made the greenpower challenge possible. Also, thank-you to Mr McMurrow and all of the parents involved, who give up their time to be a part of Greenpower and help the teams develop their engineering skills.
If you are interesting in being a part of Greenpower you will need a willing parent and you will need to be free on Monday evenings. Please see Mr McMurrow for more details.