On Sunday 2 June, seven of the Lower Sixth STEM team ventured to Castle Coombe Motor Circuit in Chippenham. The team, made up of Tan Chiba, Katie Reid, Zac Power, Tom Stapley, Quintus Hui, Charlie Holt, and Sophie Long, were ready to compete in the seventh round of the Greenpower F24+ championship in glorious sunny weather.
Following a positive outing at Goodwood in April, the team hoped to build on their performance and challenge for a podium position. We had two cars competing in the F24+ Kit car category and race.
The first, EC Racer, had updated aerodynamics and the team had worked to try and fix the problems that plagued the car at the previous event. Following scrutineering, the open practice session allowed the team to test the cars and familiarise themselves with the track. Both cars ran well, with the drivers giving positive feedback on the updates.
The F24+ race saw 35 teams take part in both scratch-built and kit cars, Tom Stapley was driving EC Racer and Charlie Holt drove EC Rider. The cars made good starts and we found ourselves in the mid-field, EC Rider was still not running to its full potential, but Charlie did a good job to finish the race in ninth position (out of 15) in class.
Tom and EC Racer had a really good race, with Quintus Hui on the pit wall updating Tom with the settings to run, he began to make his way through the field. With 10 minutes to go, he was in third place with the second place car beginning to struggle. Tom did well to complete a further two laps guided by Quintus and overtook on the final lap, finishing second in class and 15th overall – an excellent result. We hope that these results will help us qualify for the end-of-season final in October.
Our to OE Amy Scerri, who kindly came down to support the team on the day and discussed her engineering course and scholarship that she has just been awarded.
