Green Power Electric Racing for Schools
RACING TRIALS AND SUCCESS FOR WOLVERHAMPTON SCHOOL
After a great first season in the Greenpower electric Race Series St. Peter’s Collegiate School set out to defend its impressive début performance and prove that fourth in the 2003 final was not a fluke.
West Midlands Heat – RAF Cosford
We came to our second race at Cosford confident of a good performance. In the 2003 WM Heat we had great pace but burnt our motor. Development over the year had produced a great result in the final so our first outright victory was on the cards. The flag dropped and our first driver set off with only average pace. We were puzzled as rookie teams harassed our star driver. After a few laps we brought him in to find the motor was getting hot. Worried we were going to do a repeat of the previous year we selected a low gear and sent him out again. A few laps went by and our driver signaled that motor temperature was dropping and lap times improved a little. Team Barracuda ran very consistently while all around went fast then slow. Wheels fell off and the distinctive smell of burnt motor drifted across the circuit ! Gradually we moved through the field 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd and then we captured the top spot ! Our confidence climbed as we built a good advantage 5, 10, 15, 20 laps over the competition. With five out of six hours gone we had a 25 lap lead. Our last pit stop went well and then… the car stopped ! Connections were checked, fuses, switches, relays…. Nothing seemed to be wrong but the car didn’t go ! We had started to loose hope when one of our team removed a motor brush – its spring had turned to jelly. We had no spares so set off around the paddock on the scrounge. A brush was found and once inserted the motor sprang into life. Back out on the track we had dropped to 5th but there were 35 minutes to go – the fight back began. Danielle our only girl driver put in a great drive regaining 4th and then 3rd. It was a great finish with 1st 2nd and 3rd all within one lap of each other. Once the dust had settled we were happy to have qualified for the final by the ‘skin of our teeth’ on a sick two pole motor ! – which explained our lack of pace.
North West Heat – Darley Moor
Just like Cosford we arrived at Darley Moor confident we could put in a good showing and get that first win. All our motor brushes had been replaced and the car was suitably sprightly.
A dreadful weather forecast was not entirely correct but it was raining steadily ! The start flag dropped and our driver shot through the puddles along the start/finnish straight and into the chicane passing 5 or 6 cars as he went. A 3 min 30 second lap was expected for the 1.5 mile lap…. but after 5 or 6 minutes went by we realised we had problems. In time the car came back in the recovery truck – the chain had come off. This had never happened before so it was put back on and we set off again – and the chain came off again…. More investigation this time – some adjustments – and the chain came off again…. and again…. We lost count how many times. Fortunately our desperate adjusting worked and we started to put in some laps that we completed ourselves instead of with the assistance of the recovery truck ! The weather also improved and we put in some quick laps to salvage something from our 14th place – out of 18 finishers !
The problem
After much head scratching we concluded that we had a bad case of stretched chains. Neither of our drive chains had been changed in 18 months of racing – and they had never come off… until that one race! New chains and chain guards were added for extra security.
The Final
St. Peter’s Team Barracuda started 50th in the large grid of 76 cars due to a slow qualifying heat at RAF Cosford. Our team was confident they could move through the field in the first part of the race. Everyone was amazed however when first driver Elliot Bradley came through in 12th place at the end of the first 2.4 mile circuit. The following lap netted 7th place and by the end of the first hour the St. Peter’s car had reached an amazing 4th place. At one point in the sequence of pit stops the silver car ran in 3rd place but like some F1 strategies we had run a long first stint. Everyone knew in a six hour endurance race the hard part would be holding early gains to the finish. On fresh batteries second driver Matthew Round put in some of our fastest laps circulating at an average speed of 30mph – topping 37mph on the straight – not bad for a wheelchair motor and two car batteries ! Despite this pace Team Barracuda slipped to 6th only to recover to 5th at the end of the second hour. The pace at the front was relentless from lead car ‘Turbo Tortoise’. This fully enclosed car has ‘lifted the bar’ for the Greenpower competition by a significant margin.
Some faster cars were starting to suffer and as they slid down the order William Peach brought Team Barracuda back up to 4th. Tom Crosby then put in a solid drive to consolidate the team’s position. Pit crew Steven Grosvenor, Richard Hariri and Chris Savage worked very efficiently to swap drivers and batteries at each high pressure change over. Just like Formula 1 our team had pit to car communications - by mobile phone and hands free kit on auto answer - enabling vital data about current draw and motor temperature to be monitored. Into the fifth and sixth hours batteries are really feeling the strain. Gear change problems for Matthew Sacco saw Team Barracuda slow briefly but after a last stop for batteries Danielle Lewis brought the St. Peter’s car home to very solid 5th place covering 148.8 miles and taking the award for ‘Most Improved Car’ for driving through the field from 50th to 5th.
After our fourth place in the 2003 Greenpower Final we had hoped to go one better and get onto the podium with a top three finish. We were happy with our ‘Most Improved Award’ but slightly disappointed with our placing. It was only after studying our lap time data that we realised how well we had actually done. Car developments had enabled us to travel faster and further than the previous year – our lower finishing position was due to the competition getting better !
In the final there were 456 drivers and over 300 pit crew. 7545 miles were completed by these school built electric cars which is an average of over 100 miles per car. The winning car ‘Turbo Tortoise’ completed a massive 170.4 miles – a new record. The Greenpower Final at Goodwood is the second largest event at that prestigious venue after the world famous Goodwood Revival Meeting.
Formula 35
We are very pleased to be racing at the Greenpower ‘Race of Champions’ on the 1st May 2005. Shortly after that we plan to convert our car to the Greenpower’s new racing class ‘Formula 35’. This is an exciting development to extend the age range of the students involved with Greenpower. Formula 24 is for age groups up to Year 11 (16 yrs). Formula 35 is for sixth form age students and above (16 yrs +). The new F35 class will get a more powerful motor (350w instead of the 240w for F24) and more batteries (6 instead of 4) but will have to build a more complex car. Suspension on all wheels, gears and/or speed control are all a requirement of the class. Just like Le Mans F24 and F35 will race together adding another interesting facet to the Greenpower Series – will the more complex heavier F35 cars prevail over the simpler lighter F24 cars over six hours ?
The Greenpower project has been a great opportunity for students to combine many subject areas in one exciting team project. Physics, Design Technology and Maths are all grounded in a practical learning experience and a massive team effort. In addition two key objectives of Greenpower are 1/ to further the cause of engineering - the number of students taking engineering degrees is falling – and 2/ promote and develop ‘green’ motor vehicle technology - our future transport needs will rely on alternatives to the internal combustion engine. We aim to be part of the education that will bring this about.
For more information including F24 and F35 specifications visit the web site www.greenpower.co.uk
An Invitation From Andrew Bradley
