Goodwood International Final 8th October 2023
Scrutineering
After arriving at the circuit at 7.15am we quickly got the car ready for scrutineering, along with our tallest driver Charlie. It wasn’t plain sailing as the brakes initially didn’t pass the brake test – turns out they don’t work so well with WD40 on the brakes! The team quickly got the car back to the paddock to clean it off. The team demonstrated good communication skills as they fanned out to different paddocks to try and find some brake cleaner fluid. Once the brakes had been cleaned up it was time to sort the driver order and jobs for the day.
Practice
George and Hollie were the focus to get out in the car on the practice as neither had driven around Goodwood before. There was a lovely moment when Hollie’s Mum, also a racing driver, realised that her daughter was getting to drive around Goodwood before she had! The car was running well in practice so the team was feeling confident.
Race 1
The grid positions for the first race were determined by the position of each car in the league table. This saw us starting at 59th on the grid out of 90 cars. We had four drivers taking part in this race, unfortunately there was a bit of a communication error and Charlie was pitted after 1 lap, however he stayed in the car and rejoined the race completing another 3 laps before changing to the next driver. We also knew the batteries that were in for this race were not our best pair of batteries, so were pleased with a result of 66th, which would become our grid position for the final race.
Final
Energy levels were running a bit low after a long and hot lunch break whilst the F24+ cars were out racing. The team rallied round though, and we saw some excellent teamwork as the team checked tyre pressures, got the phone connected to the echook system and checked the temperature of the motor. Then it was off to the grid parade and final race. Lily was our first driver and had a steady start off the grid before picking up the pace over the next few laps. Lily handed over to Josh who confidently took the car around the circuit, avoiding some other slower moving vehicles. Hollie was our final driver bringing the car over the finish line at around 5pm. Our final distance in this race was our best all season at 33.88 miles. We didn’t win any awards however we were immensely proud of how the team had performed throughout the day, and can confidently say that we all had a lot of fun!
Summary
I think I speak on behalf of all of the team when I say that we were just so proud of ourselves for even making it to the International Final this year. We saw some fantastic teamwork moments, both between the kids and the adults. We felt confident in the car going into the races and can see an improvement in distance from the last time we were at Goodwood earlier this year. Two main subjects have been identified to work on over the winter workshop sessions: battery management and aerodynamics.
None of this would be possible without our amazing sponsors for this year:
MacKart Additive
Thinking it Better
ProTECH MOT & Automotive Academy
STEM Venturi
O’Connor Electrical
Particle Technologies
Special thanks go to Etwall Explorers for the use of their minibus, and Airspeed Aviation Ltd for covering the costs of the van and minibus for this race weekend.
Bring on 2024!
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