The Angry Gecko races to the final

Saturday night 15th October, 7:00 pm, Chelsea Academy Race Team (C.A.R.T) arrives to camp at the Rockingham International speedway circuit for the Greenpower International Final and the rain is coming down in buckets! Undeterred the team consume huge quantities of Domino’s in the school minibus and by the time supper is finished the downpour has stopped and we can get our tents up. Most of the students are hardened professionals having completed their DofE this summer and Ms Edge and Mr Wootton are on hand to make sure the tents are set up properly. Just time to go and meet some of the other schools and it’s time to try and sleep. Next morning everyone has a fry up and we…

Saturday night 15th October, 7:00 pm, Chelsea Academy Race Team (C.A.R.T) arrives to camp at the Rockingham International speedway circuit for the Greenpower International Final and the rain is coming down in buckets! Undeterred the team consume huge quantities of Domino’s in the school minibus and by the time supper is finished the downpour has stopped and we can get our tents up. Most of the students are hardened professionals having completed their DofE this summer and Ms Edge and Mr Wootton are on hand to make sure the tents are set up properly. Just time to go and meet some of the other schools and it’s time to try and sleep.

Next morning everyone has a fry up and we are ready to race just as the heavens open again!

Having qualified for the finals for the first time this year, everyone is on edge hoping that we will be competitive against the teams that have come from all over the country and some from as far afield as America and Poland.

The morning race starts in torrential rain but it’s clear that the Angry Gecko is competitive in the Kit Car class as Antonio passed six cars in the first lap. (see link here for a driver’s eye view of the first lap). After half an hour it’s clear we are in the top 6 kit cars but as the race progresses we realise we have got the gearing slightly high on the car and the Gecko starts to run out of puff in the final 15 minutes of the first race with Ras.I coaxing the car over the line just before the batteries give up the ghost!

With a one and a half hour gap before the afternoon race we decide there is just time to pull the motor sprocket and lower the gearing for the second event, sacrificing top speed for more endurance.

All hands to the deck and we get finished with 5 minutes to spare and the decision turns out to have been right as we fight it out with the other cars in the class ending up in 4th place overall. An amazing result for our first final.

So now it is back to the drawing board for the Electric car enrichment to figure out how we can squeeze out extra performance for next year to improve results.

Congratulations to the team: Skye, Nicolas and Zios in year 10 and Xavier, Ras.I and Antonio in year 11 and thanks to Ms Edge and Mr Wootton for supervising the camping and Mr Dy for the photos and videos!

If you are interested in more about the Greenpower competition there website is here.