Corporate Challenge 2012

Just days after reveling the new build, the race diary for next year already has its first entry, and what an entry it is! 

Once a year the top 15 teams from the F24 Final go head to head with industry, organisations or private teams in the Corporate Challenge. Once again it will be held at none other than Silverstone Race Circuit, home of the British Grand Pix, on Sunday 29th April 2012.

I had the privileged to race in the event last season and it was an experience I will never forget, so when the opportunity arouse again for next year I entered straight away!

Now that we are firmly on the bill for what I would class as Greenpowers flagship event where the likes of Blue Peter, Bentley and Jaguar Landrover first made their appearances, I can draw on last years experiences and hopefully improve drastically on the result of 31st of 35. Having beaten Bentley though it wasn't a total bad day.

With this being our debut race, we have little over 6 months to get Amperrous up and running. This may seem like a long time but believe me its really not. Thankfully I have no worries that we wont be finished in time, I dare say were be ready for some of Greenpower Test Track days, but thats a little way off yet...

For more information on the event click HERE.

A New Start

Now that the 2010/2011 is well and truely over, unfortunately not in style but whats done is done, the focus is shifted totally to next year.

Having just entered into the line up for next years Corporate Challenge, held again at Silverstone, there seems no better time to unveil the plans for the new car ~ Ampherrous. 

For a bit of background information on the name, the whole idea originates from the car being compaired to the look of an amphioxus (a cephalochordate for anyone studying biology) and with some tweeking the name stuck. The amp clearly comes from its links with electricity, the adapted spelling of pherrous (should be ferrous) comes from the use of steel, a ferrous metal. 

But anyway, now for the car. If you have been following the build diary you will have noticed work has been going on for quite some time, and this is now where we are with the project.

As you can see theres still lots more to do but with 6 months until the debut race I have no doubt at all that it wont be done. This is what we should have by Christmas!

 Doesn't look like much at the moment but keep an eye out for more as it happens...

The Final

You spend the year striving to do well, batteling through problem after problem hoping to make the result at the Final the one to remember. Unfortunately this is the opposite for me this weekend!

I'll start on Friday evening. A late 1am finish seen a lot of pre race work carried out which contiuned into Saturday afternoon before we left for Goodwood. All was seeming good at this point. After arriving later than expected at the campsite we all headed stright to sleep to wake Sunday realising we were an hour behind shedual, always good to have some morning stress before a race! Arraving at the track seen us go straight into scrutineering where it was deemed I was suddenly too tall since my last drive 2 weeks ago and an issue with braking seen us falling further behind however this was just the tip of the iceburge. I managed to sort the issues just in time for the F24+ race however we had no practice. Sat on the starting grid not knowing how the new gearing was going to work was very daunting. 

Then the race began, and ended 20m later!

Pulling away all seemed good until I looked at the amp reader to see an extremely low drop of the amps. This was then followed by a stop. Asking the marshal to pop my belt back on I was given the reply of "its not off, its snapped" and there as the belt was handed to me torn in half, so had everything I had hoped to achieve that day! 

Congratulations has to go to R-Pods who took the eventual Championship but an outstanding race from iWoosh producing some unbelievable lap times took the checkered flag for Round 8.

For the full Round 8 standings click HERE and for the Constructors Championship standings HERE.

In the F24 race the title was taken by Rotary Racer, 4 laps clear of its closest rival! For full race standings see HERE. Local racers RLR fared well securing 17th, losing only 1 place from there grid start. This unfortunately was not enough to gain entry to the Corporate Challenge next year but should some teams pull out they may well being filling in... Theres also word over at RLR of a new build, this I look forward to seeing!

So, as I've said many times before, despite the result its not all bad. Its a pain not to have known how the gearing would have fared but its motorsport, things happen, its looking up for next year though. 

Work is now well underway on the new build and heres a very sneak peak at part of the vehicle, check back again soon for more!

Its time for me now to sum up this season, and in a word AWESOME. It may seem strange for me to say that despite all that has happened but from all the years I've been involved in Greenpower this has taken the crown. Its not been full of high success but has given life changing experiences and taught me so much. Next season is already setting the bar higher than this one so this time next year you should be reading a very different review! 

As one door closes another door opens!

It has finally arrived, the point on the race calendar you spend the season building up to…The Final!

After a long year the culmination of 9 F24 regional heats and 7 F24+ will come to a joint end at the ever popular Goodwood Motor Circuit. In many ways the home of Greenpower this historic venue is one not to be missed and one that excites me every time I return.

For me this marks the end of GDS Racing and sees M6 steered permanently into the hands of Camborne School, but its not something to look sadly upon. As this blog title says “As one door closes another door opens!” and that door is already wide open!

If you’ve followed this blog from the start you will have read about my plans for next season and I cannot wait to get out on the track in the new build, but more will be said about this in due course.

The focus this week is The Final and with that a few test ideas for next year. I’ve already said about the alteration to gearing in the previous blog (thanks again RLR) and I have a few other things to try out so were see how those pan out…

If you can make it along or just what to follow the race by BBKLive Timing or Cover It Live here is the layout of the day:

• 0730 - Teams arrive and sign in
• 0815 - Scrutineering opens
• 0900 - Team briefing 1
• 0930 - 1030 – Practice
• 1040 - Team briefing 2
• 1100 - 1230 - F24+ race
• 1300 - 1700 - F24 race
• 1730 - Prize giving

I am very proud to say we are the only Cornish entrant qualified for the F24+ final, which considering only requires attending 2 races is not a hard feat but one still only achieved by us. But this is not enough. Considering the previous pace at Castle Combe and the expected increase for this weekend the aim is to break into the top 15 of the 22 cars on track. This for me would see a very up and down season finally end heading in the right direction, hopefully not on the back of a recovery truck for once!

In the F24 race RLR are the highest seeded Cornish team in 16^th with their rivals at Penair in 54^th. I want to send a huge good luck to RLR and once again a thank you for their help, it’s a true testament to their professionalism and the links held by teams sporting the Cornish name!

So my parting note is this. The 2010/2011 season has been by far the best I’ve been involved in although its sad to know its coming to an end I know next year is going to blow this one off the track!

Watch This Space!!!

Goodwood Gearing

As you may know from most of the posts I have added this season not only here but also on the GDS Racing page, gearing and therefore pace on the track has been bothering me at pretty much every race! When I thought I was onto a good ratio the batteries wouldn't last and when they would last the car was just too slow. But thanks to some help from the team at RLR I have been able to see where I am going wrong.

The issue was simply having the gears set too high to allow the motor to rev at around 2000rpm. Over the course of 1 set of batteries at Merryfield the average rpm was under 1000 at a ratio of 3.2:1. Then with the wise words of RLR ringing in my ears, that the planned ratio of 3.7:1 for Castle Combe was still to high so a quick drop to 4:1 (the max we could drop it with the gears available) seen over the same 1 battery set the rpm rise to over 1300.

So its seems a bit counter intuitive that putting a slower gear on makes the car faster (obviously to a limit) but it works. M6 increased by about 1.5m/s even with my extra weight compared to when the team at Camborne drove it, and the batteries lasted much better. Not only that but the increased rpm also considerably lowers the amps drawn. Where I always aimed for a high speed running amps of about 20A, with this gearing its now virtually nothing, which for the hilly sectors of the tracks makes all the difference by saving energy and putting less heat into the motor. A win win situation!

Now with the final round just over a week away I have been madly working through data from the last few races and looking at countless ratios to see for myself why RLR suggest a 60 tooth and I can now see why. With the increase we should be pulling 2000rpm comfortably with no worries of high amps. For an Autumn race at Goodwood this is just what you need. As well, unlike Castle Combe, I wont have to throttle back when I hit some wind or a hill as the high speed amps will be low enough that the low speed amps wont be massive. But the main point from this I will be able to race flat out the entire lap without having to worry about what the amps are doing, how hot the motor is, if I need to throttle back etc etc, I can just go out, and if all goes to plan, just race and hopefully get that step closer to the middle of the pack where M6 just didn't quite have the pace last weekend.

Thanks again RLR and good luck at the Final!

Castle Combe Review

Racing in the penultimate round of the F24+ season representing GDS Racing, we had one of the more promising races to date at Castle Combe.

The day started with an issue concerning belt tension but with some pre race tweaking this was soon sorted. This came at a cost though as it meant we missed the grid by a matter of minutes, causing us to start nearly a lap behind from the pit lane.

Luck was however, for once, on our side! With a time keeping problem race control arranged a re start allowing us the chance to start from the grid and within a few laps had taken 12th of 17.

This form continued until I missed a signal to pit and as the batteries didn't have the power to bring me back around recovery was needed. This along with a battery change cost a lot of time, but then as I pulled away to get back onto the track the electrics cut once again. The problem was actually due to a connection issue but once sorted M6 was back on the track, unfortunately only with enough time for 1 more lap, ending the day with us in 14th. We weren't able to gain any points but the pace was good so hopefully we can have a good race at the final.

In the end 1st place went to Chipping Sodburys R-PodS followed by Zebedee and Brian of Sandbach School, putting R-PodS now joint top alongside Driven Motion on 20points with Myton Racing II 3rd on 18. It could go either way and with a few teams on 16 theres a small chance they could also emerge at the top in 2 weeks at Goodwood, but from the form shown by the leaders its going to take a lot to beat them!

For full race positions click Here and for the results of the F24 race click Here.