Ninth Greenpower breaks records

Almost 4,000 people took part or cheered on the competitors in this year’s Cornwall College Greenpower competition at Newquay Cornwall Airport.

The regional heat of the national education programme, now in its seventh year in Cornwall, saw almost 100 schools on the track during Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th June 17-18 racing cars which they had designed and built from scratch.

Almost 70 cars from primary schools in the region took to the track ready to get racing on day one of the event. Children competed in the Goblin Formula event where each school is supplied with a kit car which has to be built by the team in the months leading up to race day. Cars are then entered into various categories for the chance of winning a Greenpower award.

Day tow of the event saw a number of young people join Falmouth’s community police team to form the Falmouth Cop Car Project and Falmouth Fire Station entered the Falmouth Fast Fire Engine with local teenagers.

South West Regional Ambassador for Greenpower, Vaughan Curnow, said: “This event was a record breaker. It is the biggest competition we’ve had so far in Cornwall with over 4,000 people enjoying the racing over the two days. This is all about engaging young people with science, maths, engineering and technology, but there is more than that to this project, we’ve had support from the RNLI and Devon and Cornwall Police; it’s about breaking down barriers.”

The Greenpower Education Trust promotes sustainable engineering to young people, giving them the opportunity to design and construct electric cars, alongside engaging sponsors, sourcing resources and gaining the support needed to make their designs come alive. The challenging project incorporates maths, engineering, physics, design, marketing, team building, technology, problem solving & communication.

The South West heat is by far the biggest in the UK, incorporating almost half of Cornwall’s primary schools and nearly all of its secondary schools, as well as schools from Devon and further afield.

The overall winners in the Goblin Challenge this year were St Newlyn East. Head of School, Clare Crowle, said: “We are so proud of these children, they have worked so hard and they have been really inspired by the challenge, really raised their aspirations and I think we have inspired a new generation of engineers. The whole school have been behind us, all of the pupils waved us off, there were some anxious parents waiting to hear the results and these children have raised a phenomenal amount of sponsorship.”

Day two of the competition saw secondary schools and youth organisations compete on the track with their Formula 24 cars.

The competition saw hundreds of eager students up against each other in two 90 minute endurance races around a specially designed track on the airfield in cars built up from scratch with only an electric engine and batteries supplied.

A clear winner emerged from the F24 heat after two races; Team Viper from Taunton School, closely followed by Richard Lander and Penair School. The overall winners of the F24 competition will go on to race at the national final, to be held at the famous Rockingham Motor Speedway, later this year.

All the racing teams were cheered on by their team mates and class mates, as well as the helpers, supporters and sponsors of each car.