Following a brilliant performance at the Newquay Airport heats in the summer, Falmouth School students headed for Rockingham and the national finals of the Green Power kit car event.

A group of year ten students in partnership with Falmouth Fire Station's Red Watch and local police officer, took their creations to race at the Rockingham International Race Circuit against 45 other cars from all over the country as well a teams from the USA.

The day started with a strict scrutineering session to ensure both cars were safe to race and had all of the relevant safety features, which was followed by a safety brief. Completed cars then took to the oval circuit to take part in practice laps where each member of the team got to drive their car around the track. With the practice session completed the students then took their cars to a frantic pit area to make last minute adjustments in preparation for race time.

With adjustments done, the cars lined up on the grid to the start the race around Rockingham Speedway’s 1.5 mile oval circuit. The flag dropped and the cars were off on the start of 90 minutes of racing. Each student got to drive two laps and as the race went on the pit stop/driver changes became very slick. At the chequered flag the Fast Fire Engine came in 34th, the Police Car a respectable 36th after suffering some electrical faults on what was still a highly enjoyable day

Falmouth School’s Mark Philpott said: “Thanks must go to Falmouth fire and police stations for their continuous support of our students. This was an exciting opportunity for our students to engage with a project that will not only see them develop teamwork skills and engineering knowledge, but gave them the opportunity to race their creations."