Greenpower - King Arthur's Exciting Season of Racing
Report by Lester James, Peter McCarthy and Mitch Tucker (Year 11 Students)
The first outing for the new car was at RNAS Merryfield where we came 8th out of 24 competitors, achieving a distance of 77.3 miles over a four hour period. We were not sure how well the car would do as the new batteries have 30% less available power than the old ones. Peter McCarthy had the honour of being the fastest driver in the team by completing a lap of the 1.4 mile circuit in 1 minute 57 seconds. The weather for the race could have been a bit better and we faced monsoon conditions at one point - not exactly what you want for electric cars. We missed out on being the top Somerset car by just one lap!
The second race was at Castle Coombe. The day started very early as we had to get the car through scrutineering at 8.00am, but ended very well with the team managing a very credible 15th place out of 49 competitors. The last few laps of the race were very tense as the car was struggling on dying batteries, but Adrian Wrzesinski nursed it round to take the chequered flag. The fastest lap for the team was achieved this time by Charlie Miners who managed to do a lap of the 2.3 mile track in 3 minutes 56 seconds - a huge improvement over KAII. Many of the other cars struggled in the extreme October heat, but our car just kept on going. We completed 83.3 miles which was enough to qualify us 31st in the country for the National Final on October 16th. The highest ranking KAII ever achieved was 46th!
My First Greenpower Race, by Tallon Haines, Year 7
Although I wasn't able to drive, I found the race at Castle Coombe a thrill to be part of. I now know that the whole team likes a joke, that they all have high spirits - even after Adrian's slow crawling of two laps. They all are determined to do their best, they all work well together and finally they all welcomed me into the team. I am looking forward to the final at Goodwood and to racing next year.
Glorious Goodwood: National Final by Mr David Kiddell, Head of Design Technology
On a fantastic sunny October day, KAIII took to the race track with the top 75 electric cars in the country. The team drove a fantastic race and finished an amazing 30th with 88.8 miles, beating the best ever mileage from KAII by 2.4 miles. The standard of competition this year was incredibly high and saw KAIII finish in a group of 10 cars all on the same number of laps - two more laps would have seen us placed inside the top 20! Charlie and Brad were the star drivers of the day and their spirited driving saw the car leap up the leader-board into 15th position at the mid race point. Pacing was better at this event, but there is still some improvement that can be made here to achieve more consistent running. Big thanks to Lester, Peter, Mitch and George, who have been competing since Year 8, for all their efforts with the team over the years. The team would like to thank Ford Fuel Oils for their generous sponsorship of this year's car.
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