Tag Archives: Goodwood Motor Circuit

Bedales in the Greenpower International Finals

Posted on by

By Alex McNaughton, Head of Faculty: Art & Design

On Sunday 8 October, Bedales qualified to compete in the Greenpower International Finals 2023 at Goodwood Motor Circuit. This was quite something; racing on one of the most iconic tracks in the world, with clear skies against 90+ other cars, the day was set to be one to remember. Our place in the finals had been achieved by our consistent performance in the Goodwood and Castle Combe heats earlier in the year.

The Bedales Greenpower project is going from strength to strength; we have a great group of regular attendees at our weekly sessions and have a real thirst to do better each time we race. We are aiming towards fielding an additional car for the next season – watch this space for future developments.

Here, two Bedales Greenpower team members reflect on their experience in the finals.

By Elliot Cundy, Block 5 and Max Galgey, Block 4

The first event of the day was open practice; 70 minutes in which we could run our car non-competitively to check everything was running as it should be, practice our race strategy, see how our lap times compared to the rest of the grid, and give a few of our new drivers some all-important practice behind the wheel.

Thankfully the car ran without any issues, and our race strategy was proving effective; the use of a pit board enabled us to communicate with the driver as to how much throttle to use, allowing us to pace the car for the optimal balance between performance and efficiency so as to not run out of power (as has been a problem in previous races). As the practice session came to an end, we swiftly swapped the car’s batteries to a fresh fully charged set and lined up on the grid for the first race, the results of which would decide our grid position for the second.

The first race went according to plan, with the four drivers all completing three laps, and setting good times for our finishing position. The first driver came into the pitlane after a very good stint. We had a good pitstop that held our position, and out the second driver went. A very close call on the start straight, when another car illegally blocked us. The car was unscathed, and we kept going, the next few pitstops went well. All the drivers in the second race drove very well and gave us a qualifying position on 50th.

Heading into the second race, we qualified 50th out of 92 with a strong mindset and a clear strategy, calculated from previous results in an Excel spreadsheet. At the race start we swiftly moved up through the field at a steady but strong pace. We completed five laps before heading into the pitlane where the next driver was waiting. With a decent pitstop, we were back out onto the track. In the pitlane, we had lost a few positions, but we kept going strong.

On the second lap of the second stint, the driver clocked a new Goodwood team best of a five-minute and 10-second time. The next lap had a bit of confusion, letting the driver go 100% for another lap, a mistake that would later affect the car’s performance. The driver then pulled into the pits a few laps later, where the team completed a new fastest pit stop of around five seconds.

Out went the last driver, going as fast as he wanted to finish the race. Heading onto the final lap the car started to run low on power, but thankfully the car kept going. While heading into the final corner, the car’s speed dropped significantly and it rolled across the line to finish 18th of 52 in class and 48th of 92 overall.

Since last year’s finals, the Bedales Greenpower team have been working hard each week to fit a variety of upgrades and make modifications to the car, including new cooling inlets, aerodynamic vacuum-formed wheel covers and a custom-made telemetry system. Alongside this, we are currently in the process of designing a new car, completely from scratch. It was therefore very useful to get the chance to talk to the different teams at the race about what aspects have and haven’t worked for them and to take inspiration from their designs. 

Bedales Greenpower team competes at prestigious Goodwood Motor Circuit

Posted on by

By Alex McNaughton, Head of Design

For the last eight months a team of approximately 20 students from Block 3 to 6.1 have been building and electric race car in the Design workshop. We have been doing this with the aim of competing in the national Greenpower competition. It would not have been possible to even start this undertaking without the very generous granting of funds by the Bedales Parents’ Association (BPA) nearly a year ago.

The Greenpower Educational Trust organise this annual competition each year with the aim of engaging young people about science and engineering by challenging them to design, build and race an electric race car which the students drive themselves.

It was with great excitement, and trepidation, that 12 students from Block 3, Block 5 and 6.1 accompanied by three staff entered our first ever event last Sunday (8 May) at one of the spiritual homes of motorsport in the UK – the glorious Goodwood Motor Circuit. It was a fantastic day in which we experienced the full range of emotions associated with any form of motorsport.

The day started off well with a few practice laps to fine tune the car and clock up some all-important driver experience. Unfortunately however our hopes seemed dashed moments into the first actual race of the day. The car suffered a power failure resulting in only about half our power making to the wheels. Our drivers persevered for a few laps until we decided to pit the car and remedy the issue. After nearly two and half hours of trouble shooting, maintenance and stress we managed to get the car back up and running. We were very fortunate that a couple of Greenpower volunteers and one of our competition, in the spirit of our shared endeavour, provided us with some assistance. Many many thanks to those who helped us in our hours of need. Frustratingly no one could accurately diagnose the mystery gremlin so we prepared the car as best we could and entered the second round.

Thankfully the period of doubt and anxiety was swiftly replaced by heart racing joy, elation and exuberance as the car and drivers performed fantastically well in the second round. Our car was fixed, it leapt to life as it should and sped away clocking up an above average 28 miles of racing in the afternoon. The relief was wiped from every face – we had succeeded and were competitively racing! It was an awesome feeling to be able to share in this success and reap the rewards of our many hours of hard work in building our first race car.

It was a long but utterly worthwhile day spent in the wonderful sunshine at Goodwood culminating in an incredibly successful first outing for the car and team. I am so incredibly proud of all who helped build the car, those who raced it and to all those who accompanied and supported us on the day.

I would like to say an enormous and heartfelt thank you to the BPA on behalf of the entire team for the opportunity to get this far and for the many races ahead. We are already planning ways to improve and prepare the car for our next race in September at Dunsfold.

Happy motoring to you all…