Green Power
South West Regional Qualifier
Raptor Fusion – ready
for practice.
Rock on Raptor and the ladies in pink.
On Thursday the 19th of June Penair School
participated in the Greenpower electric vehicle race at Newquay airport. The event included twenty one other schools
from across the South West. All of the teams were battling it out for one of
the top three positions, that would
secure them a place in the national final at Goodwood. The weather was
stunning, which made for a fantastic atmosphere and made up for the last few
years, where the race took place in driving rain.
The Penair Engineering teams had tested their cars on the
schools all weather pitch and on the clubs rolling road. This meant that the
teams had a clear strategy, and were ready for the new racing format that
included making the cars run for longer on a single set of batteries. The
practice laps were as eventful as ever for the teams, and highlighted a slight
problem with one of our breaks. This was quickly fixed and the car got back on
the track to let some of the younger drivers to become accustomed to the
circuit. After the problems during the practice the first race went very
smoothly with the Penair Engineerings boys’ team leading from the front for the
majority of the race. The drivers and pit crew were extremely disciplined and
focused on the race strategy throughout. This clearly worked in our favour and
allowed us to achieve first place, and gave us a guaranteed position in
National Final. The girls team (Rock on Raptor) were not quite as elated. This
was due to their car running out of battery power ten minutes before the end of
the race, but despite this, excellent driving allowed them to gain a very
respectable 8th place.
The second race also started very well with Raptor Fusion
again producing some very consistent lap times thanks to some excellent driving
from Alfie Spouse and Rufus Leather. The girls’ team were also doing extremely well,
but without managing to change the gearing on their car we knew that they may
run out of power before the end of the race again. Our suspicions were
confirmed five minutes before the finish, but the girls’ had managed to gain a
couple of places to achieve a 6th position in the second race. Prior
to this however the boys’ team was pulled in due to a break problem and a flat
tyre. The team fixed the tyre as quickly as possible but were not quick enough
to retain the number one slot. They did however manage to achieve third
position in this race due to a flying last lap by Frederick Freeborn. The team also
gained the award for best Engineered car and they also gained the Spirit of
Greenpower award, for the help they have given to other teams locally. All in
all it was an excellent day for both our teams and it was clear many of the
other schools involved also thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I would like to
personally thank Vaughan Curnow and Jeremy Way and the Greepower team for
organising such an excellent event that clearly inspires the younger
generations. I would also like to thank Spencer Hosen and Ron Koning for the
support they have given to the Penair Engineering club over the past few years.
