Penair Engineering

Green Power

South West Regional Qualifier

 

Raptor Fusion – ready for practice.

Rock on Raptor and the ladies in pink.

 

On Thursday the 19^th 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 8^th 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 6^th 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.