With several races done now the team are running like clockwork, flying through scrutineering and getting out to practice nice and early, myself and the other adults just setup our seating and let the team crack on. After a few pace laps from Harrison it was time to debut one of our new drivers, Jack, to take the wheel. As one of the two kids to have attended every race we have done, Jack is finally old enough to get out on the track.
With practice over it was time for the race to begin, Jacca lining up the car for RLR. The starting grid for regionals is a first come first served affair but with the team working so smoothly we managed to get ourselves right on the front row of the grid with such esteemed competitors as Rotary Racer and BY-Pod. The sun was beating down and track temperature rising, this would be a tough race for the drivers.
An swollen field of 49 competitors with a few former champions thrown in for good measure would make this a difficult race, even getting into the top fifteen would be a challenge but that's the target we set ourselves
Our strategy for this race was to increase our gearing to try and find our limit before the final so Jacca knew that he had to pace the car for the long race ahead keeping consistent laps (but still managing to sneak in our fastest lap of the race). by the end of Jacca's stint we were sitting in 18th place.
Next up was Ben to chase down some of those cars who had edged ahead of us and get into that top 15 bracket. With the determination and consistency Ben has shown all season those last few cars were picked off one by one and by the end of his run we were comfortably inside our target in 13th position, but with two thirds of the race to go, could we hold on? Could we do even better?
Time for the long stint, this time it was Harrison. Battling hard for those extra places and holding off the cars chasing us down, at the halfway point Harrison had taken us up to 10th, revealing a frustratingly familiar sight, the back of Megazord! The team from Bristol has finished one place ahead of us at both our previous heats and the team were determined to not let it happen again. As teams rose up and fell away, positions changed regularly but we still couldn't pass Megazord, although we were slowly gaining lap after lap. With ourselves in 9th, Megazord in 8th and Piranha in 7th it was time to start changing batteries. Megazord and Piranha came in first, allowing us to take both positions but we still had to pit ourselves on the next lap. When our time came, the team pulled off annother great pit stop, getting Gareth in and an exhausted Harrison out, and we were out and we settled around the timing board to see if we could beat Megazord and Piranha out, but it was mixed results, ahead of Piranha but still behind Megazord, leaving us in 8th place.
Becky put in some great laps, tailing 'zord the whole way, putting the pressure on the whole time when completely out of the blue Superformance overtook us both, pushing Megazord and ourselves down to 8th and 9th. With only 12 minutes of the four hour race to go we got our chance, Meagazord's early pace had left them short on juice and they needed a battery change, and we finally overtook with just 8 minutes left on the clock, all we had to do was finish our last lap. As they disappeared up the Avon Rise, RLR1 was ahead with Megazord perilously close behind, the team took up a position on the pit wall to see the cars cross the line. For us the race was down to two cars, the other forty something competitors didn't matter now, only the red of RLR1 and the blue of Megazord, which one would come around first and claim 8th place?
It was blue.
Becky's batteries just couldn't keep up the pace for that extra lap. They had pipped us again!
9th place was our final position, well within our top 15 target and with mileage of 92.5, we continue to improve race after race. We are now 15th on the grid for the final, looking on target for a good result at Goodwood in a fortnights time, we may even beat Megazord one day!
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