Finally, the day had come. The day that we would finally be racing our cars in Greenpower F24+. Before that could happen though, we spent the evening of the 29th of June travelling to Perth, a journey that can take about 5 hours. The following day we travelled to Corby, which is another 7 hours (especially considering the traffic). We had a good sleep before waking bright and early for the Rockingham Heat.
Having never raced at Rockingham mean't there was the excitement of approaching a new track. After passing scrutineering we headed out for practice. Both Minion (driven by Nicola) and Aluminion (driven by me, Ailsa) performed well, however we decided to gear up the cars and test them again. Then they ran even better. My car, Aluminion, got a bit of a beating when a collision occurred. The back axle of the other car dug a hole in the side of Aluminion and deformed other areas of the car causing a puncture to the front right wheel. The poor car only just got on the road.
For the F24+ races, there is an hour with no necessary driver changes. On a circuit like Rockingham, it's mostly a race of judging how much power you have left and how to use it.
Aluminion, due to my misjudgement, had power left - enough to bump up my placing from 8th to 7th. But considering it was the car's first outing and that it is generally slower than Minion, I think 8th is a noble position. Minion on the other hand, ran out of power towards the end (perhaps from gearing too high, or other factors) which dropped the car down to 10th position.
It was a successful day, and a good opportunity to get to know the track that we'll be heading to for the final.
Since the journey from Caithness is a long one, we decided that in between these two races (that are 6 days apart) my parents and I were going to have a small trip round our family in England. We had a really great wee holiday before tackling Croft.
We had already estimated the gearing necessary for a tighter and tougher circuit like Croft and changed it - therefore, we were ready to go out for practice straight after scrutineering. Again, practice went well but not great and when we came back in we decided to bump up the gearing in both cars once again.
This time the race wasn't so successful. By the time we were lining up on the grid it was chucking it down. During the race, my communication system (phone, auto-answer and headphones with a microphone on the lead) wasn't working, so there was no way of knowing how the car was placing.
Then, as the rain came down, my electrics failed, everything just went. We do have a relay on the car that is easy to use as it's just a button on top of the steering lever. However, in a moment of panic and rashness - I came in to the pits. After being reminded that there is a relay button, Aluminion went straight back out.
At the end of the race, the car was still running strong and if it weren't for the mishap, it probably would have placed in the top three but a 6th place position is good enough for me. Minion had received a puncture fairly early on in the race and 14 minutes of race time was lost. The car ended up placing 7th.
It proved to be harsh race for many of the F24+ competitors and cars. But with so many F24 teams at these events we found that our cars were getting some love for the characters that they represent, it's always great to see support like that!
After such a tiring day we packed up the trailer. Then my parents, Nicola, and her dad left to head back up to Scotland - whilst I stayed to head back to my Brother's place for the oncoming week in which I would be volunteering for the Gathering of the Goblins.
Reel Racing would like to take a moment to thank Women's Engineering Society for sponsoring us - it wouldn't be possible to compete without such generosity.
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