World Finals
Posted: 05/11/2019
On Thursday, 17th October 2019, Team Chicken attended the World Finals at Silverstone, where they prepared themselves to defend their Kitcar championship status against 110 other race cars.
The day started sunny and bright but was forecast was rain by the time the races started. For Team Chicken, this boded well as the car was a rain specialist. After an early start, the group arrived at the very impressive looking British circuit filled with high hopes and dreams of another star being added to our team logo.
The practice session was excellent and the team tested the new components with great success. The students all made comments with regards to the smoothness of both the track and vehicles drive system. The three drivers went out to get used to the track and the car was then cooled and prepped in readiness for the first race.
The format this year was a little different. The team had to qualify with all the F24 and Kitcars for a grid position. This would then be followed by a parade and final race. Bromsgrove placed 20th on the grid and 1st placed Kitcar for the qualifier race.
The actual race was solid and Team Chicken flew around, as expected, finishing in 19th place and the top kit car. Their pit stops were great and the car just held out until the last lap. The car was then brought back into the pit lane and cooled using their new N.S. Optimum server fan combo. The team decided to keep the car as it finished and set about answering questions about the car and race strategy. They gave help and advice for well over an hour, and at one point had a queue of students, teachers and parents waiting to talk to the Bromsgrove team.
Race 2 approached, placing 19th on the grid, with Bromsgrove's main rival in 23rd place. When the race started, the front of the grid did not see the start flag and didn’t move, whilst the middle of the pack did and so almost caused a front of the grid pile up. However, once underway, The Chicken settled into a top 15 place for the first five laps. A little rain came and went and the wind picked up, but other than that the car carried on relentlessly, and with all pit changes completed perfectly.
It got a little tense on the last lap, where The Chicken had slowed right down (battery issue) but held the lead until the last straight where Bromsgrove's main rivals passed by and finished 6.2 seconds ahead, meaning that Team Chickenfinished 2nd kit car and 24th overall. This was out of fifty-five Kitcars and 100 overall finalist cars from around the world. It is certainly a great achievement that we were all pleased with. The team topped this off with an award for best graphics celebrating the 20th anniversary of Greenpower too, which helped ease the pain of losing… a little.
The event was superb and the students were unbelievably good on the day and again we were only let down by battery discharge issues on the last lap. Students on the day were our drivers: Aggie W, Noah R and Harrison P; pit crew members Howard G, Ollie W, Morgan B, Mikayla De G, Callum W, Polly D and George E; Technical advice and past team manager Scarlett B and behind the scenes (back at School) general maintenance was undertaken by Artem K and Gabriel W.
Mr Broadbent would also like to thank Team Chicken's fantastic sponsors: Steve at 4QD, Classic Team Lotus, Cycle Studio Redditch, Washford finishing’s, Eagle Plastics and N S Optimum.