Congratulations to the amazing Park Community School Greenpower team, led by Mr Payne and Mr Davies.
The team competed at Goodwood with their three cars. Having never won a race there before it was great to get first, second and fifth places was incredible. This means that car teams ‘TS2’ and ‘Chase’ have automatic qualification for the national final. Team ‘Keep Up’ will also stand a really good chance of making the final. The team were independent, hard-working, and organised - this was a massive contributor to an excellent day. Park Community School now has two new trophies for the cabinet too!
Mr Payne’s run down of the day:
We arrived at Goodwood with all cars running well during practice. Lap times were putting us in the top ten places, so hopes were high.
Race 1
There were a hundred cars on the grid and sixty in our category. All three of our cars got off to a good start with TS2 starting slightly ahead, closely followed by Chase. Keep Up was slightly behind but catching up well. The sun was shining, and all three cars were going well in the top ten. Keep Up started to fade surprisingly early and was in sixth place but dropped to finish 32nd. Later investigation by the team found that a damaged battery cell was at fault.
Chase and TS2 were going brilliantly. Both teams worked well in pit changes and kept moving up the leader board. TS2 managed to get into first place and was developing a good lead but started to fade towards the end. Chase was catching TS2 and moved into second place. TS2 and Chase maintained their lead and came first and second for Race 1.
Results are determined by the best distance on one race of the two on the day, so all was to play for to make sure we kept those top places.
Race 2
Unfortunately, due to a battery problem, our speed controller blew up. Unfortunately, we did not have a spare so Chase could not take part in Race 2.
Keep Up, with new batteries, made a great start along with TS2 in what was a rainy afternoon. TS2 was hit by another car on the track and sustained severe damage to its rear axle and sadly was out of the race. Keep Up was moving much better this race and was in the top five at the halfway point. It moved up to third place and then second but started to fade towards the very end of the race but finished in an excellent third.
What a fantastic day. We are extremely proud of our Greenpower team.