Season Opener and Corporate Challenge at Goodwood 26th April 2010

Reporter Jeff Davis

Once again we got excellent weather forecast for the weekend which started well on the beach at West Wittering.  However, the forecast became somewhat cloudy and when we arrived at Goodwood it was raining.  Although practice was in the wet, requiring some emergency weather proofing of Brian, we had our customary puncture on Zebedee.  This turned out quite fortunate as a change of wheel meant we did not have any further tyre issues during the day.  We may have just solved the long problem which has been giving us major grief each meeting and practice session.

The Season Opener commenced and everyone thought they understood the new rules which applied for this season.  These being a set speed limit and a set number of laps within a 30 minute rolling window - none of which you could exceed at any time.  It soon came apparent that our tactics, and those of others, did not shadow the rules and most of the top running teams were soon "sin binned" for speeding (in a race?).  The race ended with Zebedee and Brian in 1st and 2nd places respectively, however, apparently on the last lap Zebedee was deemed to have been speeding and subsequently encounter a further 5 minute penalty leaving Brian to be the winner.

Now, once bitten twice shy as the saying goes and the race control for CAUC was soon changing their tactics.  Ensuring a small margin of error the race was controlled from start to finish by simply keeping to the speed limit, using the minimum number of drivers allowed and hopefully not having any breakdowns along the way.  Once we were out in front going exactly at the speed required nobody could overtake else they would be speeding and get "sin binned" and this is exactly what happened to one of our competitors.

The event went exactly according to plan and Zebedee crossed the winning line in first place.  This was not only down to excellent driving by all the girls but great "control centre" monitoring and communications to the drivers when to increase speed and when to slow down and come into the pits.  Overall an excellent team effort by all concerned.

Now, a quick note on the new rules.  As you cannot go above a set speed and number of laps (dictated by the circuit size etc.) the event comes down to how good your electronics are for controlling the speed of the car.  OK, some say this is not a bad thing, but should you have a problem during the event there is no way of catching up, unless your opponents have the same problems for the same length of time, as doing so you will be caught speeding and "sin binned".  This might account for why half the pit area disappeared half way through the event as once they had stopped there was no way of improving their position, they could only go backwards and not forwards. 

So, with the new rules in place and we do not have any breakdowns, we should now win all the races!  Just got to make sure we are on the front row of the grid at the start of each event and "hey presto" no over taking or they are speeding!  Consistency is the new aim of the event - strong reliability, smooth driving from the girls, a great computer system to monitor the progress and good communications.

Next event is a testing day at Darley Moor.