Furze Platt Greenpower Racing

Handicap Race

For the first time Greenpower held a handicap race based on the results of the 2005 final. This meant Turbo Tortoise had no bonus laps but Super Snail had 11 laps to start with. This race also saw the first bubble design from outside Furze Platt School, Slippery Trug from the Weald School and it would be interesting to see how it compared with us. Due to the handicap format TT aimed to come in the top 10 and beat Slippery Trug who also started with no bonus laps. Super Snail aimed to give its younger drivers some experience and to match TT.

The day started with practice and some of the SS drivers being given several laps to decide the final driving order. The cars then lined up on the grid with TT on the last row and SS on the second last row next to Slippery Trug. TT started with its usual fast start but SS despite a big push did not accelerate and soon ground to a halt. This was caused by the gear wire coming out of the gear shifter and after a long wait for it to be returned to paddock it was quickly repaired and sent out again. TT had got up to third place in its first lap and on its second had got into first. On the fourth lap it broke the lap record. After the first round of pit stops TT was in 29^th, up ten places and SS had had more gear problems with the chain coming of in the pits. Both cars however were heading up the field.

In the second round of pit stops, SS was sent out and it soon became apparent that it had a puncture in the front, right tyre and was grinding around the circuit. The car was brought in after 4 long laps while the pit crew prepared a new wheel. This wheel was duly changed and a new driver sent out, however they stopped due to the trip switch going. This was probably due to it being in too high a gear, possibly due to the faulty gear lever. Meanwhile TT was running smoothly and quickly, still slowly moving up the field. SS was brought back to the pits again on the recovery trailer and any faults were checked for and the car sent out again with another new driver. However while being pushed through the pits the chain came off again and this time jammed behind the gears. It was again taken back to the pits and this time the gear lever was duct taped in gear 4 and sent out again. This provided a solution and there were now no further problems with the gears.

SS finally started to move up the leader board again and TT was trying to get in the top ten. The final driver of TT was put out for the last 1 1/2 hours but towards the end of the stint, signalled that his batteries were low and 2 laps later came in to change them after losing 10mph off the top speed. On being told that TT was very close to 10^th set 2 very fast laps, the last lap of the race, becoming the new lap record.

 This race was a success for TT, doing 199 Miles (1 lap off the record) and the fastest lap of 3min 46secs and coming 10th. For SS it was a useful day, coming 27^th, with the new drivers gaining some experience of Goodwood but it now needs a new gear lever and shifter. The new Slippery Trug came 28^th but had some problems but we believe it is still not quite as fast as TT.

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Last modified: 08/06/09