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Dalbeattie High School has regained their championship trophy. Following on from our success in the first year and coming so close last year, this is definitely the hardest fought and therefore the sweetest of victories.
From a fantastic pre-judging event, we went to race day full of hope. In the morning we took part in the 1st qualifying and secured a new lap record of 32 laps in our 7 minute race. In the 2nd qualifying session, due to a lot more traffic, this was cut to 29 laps. But the 32 laps from the first session, that was 2 laps clear of anybody else, we qualified first for the Gran Prix races. This also meant we were able to wear the No.1 on our car.
The Grand prix races did not exactly go to plan. In the first race we got stuck in traffic and this meant we finished in what we think was 3rd place(will have to wait for official results to confirm).
We took the car off after this to get ready for the second race. This is where problems started. Due to the hot weather and fierce racing the car was very hot and this meant we had trouble restarting. We got on the track and from 2 laps down, we hunted the front runners and due to their misfortune and lack of reliability we managed to win this 2nd race by 2 laps!
For the 3rd race we managed to start the car OK, but on the ‘Launch' the flywheel caught the ground and stalled the engine. Again we were 2 laps down! And again we hunted the front runners down and again we took the lead. We were dicing with and swapping places with the other front runners until again they crashed out. We were off and flying but it was our turn to get some bad luck. Another car ran into the left side bending the chassis and spun the car into the barriers at full speed. This broke the steering linkage and meant the end of our race. As we were trying to sort out the steering the race finished. Until we get the official results we are not sure if we managed to do enough laps to win the final race or if someone had passed us whilst we were in the pits.
Following this we then had to wait and agonising ½ hour in the roasting sun to find out if we had done enough on race day to win the overall title.
First trophy to come our way was Heat 1 Winners due to our impressive count of 32 laps. We then had to wait to get our 2nd trophy as winners of the Grand Prix, this was for getting most points on race day and boded well for the overall result. The next two trophies were for Body and Aerodynamics and Teamwork - Experts.
Then it was holding our breath to see who had won the overall title. With Allan McNish up on the podium to hand out the prizes it would have been heartbreaking to see him hand it over to another team. But for our second time we were able to taste success and champagne! The Overall Championship winners were called and the winners are Dalbeattie High School.
From last years painful 2nd place to win was so sweet, especially for the 5 members who carried on from last year. Of the 6 trophies we could have won, we walked away with 5.
Other success for Dumfries and Galloway went to Stranraer Academy for Engineering - Rookie and to Maxwellton High (Dumfries) for Body and Aerodynamics. Of the 12 Major trophies 6 of these went to Dumfries and Galloway Schools.
