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27 September 2008 - The final round of the BPCC and the result was sweet!

Another sprint format for the final round at Curborough, 1hr, 2hr and 3hr races back to back. The blokes team consisted of Rob, Graham and James with John (ill boy) Scholey providing team tea and cakes, and a few hours of his marshaling skills for the event. The girls had their usual two contenders in the form of Sue and Hana. The Swebbelli PCF team put in a strong team of three for the racing which proved a little tough to beat in races 1 and 2. Race 3 however produced a 1st place for the girls but sadly this was not enough to take the victory for the day. The championship result in PCF could not have been closer with Bristol Racing beating Swebbelli Racing by just 1 point over all 7 rounds - GREAT STUFF!!!

The chaps race went to the usual season form with no technical problems. Radioactive Racing pipped Rob at the post to take first place in race 1. Impressive performances from GCR and Swebbelli (6) were also demonstrated coming third and forth respectively. The chaps were pushed hard in race 2 and race 3 by Radioactive as we only managed a lap or so victory in each. Really good racing as ever up in the PC1 categegory and the night time finish added that little something special to a awesome weekend of racing. Huge thanks to all the organisers and helpers.

6 & 7 September 2008 - A wet and breezy couple of days provided much fun for rounds 5 and 6.

Round 5 was on the Saturday and would take the form of the typical sprint format, a 1hr race followed by a 2hr and then a 3hr race. The blokes (full team of John, Rob, Graham and James) have never really been confident in the 1 hour races as a couple of the other teams usually roll out some big legs and put the power on in the final stages. True to form this happened again with Radioactive powering home in first place with the blokes coming home 2nd. We played the tactic of putting Rob out for the full hour saving team legs and pitstop time. A quick fettle with the cars and we were off into the 2hr race; again the usual battle with the top teams ensued but we managed to gain a big enough lead to snatch the win over radioactive. Swebbelli Racing in car 6 managed an awesome 3rd place pipping GCR to the finish by a couple of laps.

Race 3 was more our kind of event with endurance coming into play over the 3 hours and a mechanical issue free race again saw us come first ahead of Radioactive by a couple of laps. With 20 minutes or so remaining we backed off a little to save legs for the big 6hrs the following day.

Our PCF team for round 5 consisted of just Sue so an overall win for the day would be tricky, however Sue was entered into the PC0 (solo) category in which brilliantly she came home in first place ahead of the other PC0 entrant!

Sunday (round 6) was the day of the 6hr race. The girls team now consisted of Sue and Hana, with Hana returning from the previous days rowing regatta. The two of them put in a strong performance and came first by a massive 15 laps, despite being hindered by a couple of punctures (which kept the lazy pit crew busy!)

The chaps pushed hard from the start to also take victory over 2nd placed Radioactive Racing and 3rd placed GCR. This victory meant that the PC1 team were now effectively BPCC Champions since their points tally was such that Radioactive could not beat them even if we didn't show at Round 7 in Curborough. Still, that's not the mentality of Bristol Racing, we wanted to win and win well!

20 July 2008 – Tactics played a key role in getting a couple of great results at Silverstone!

Confidence was not exactly high when both the girls and blokes teams arrived at Silverstone with only 2 members in each, especially since this would be part of the sprint series. The form of the day consisted of a 1hr race followed by a 2hr and then a 3hr making a gruelling 6 hrs of racing for each team, for us this would mean 3hrs of high paced action for each team member.

The circuit was brilliantly assembled in carpark 49 at the great and famous venue of Silverstone. The cone bounded course consisted of wonderful sweeping bends with a couple of very tight corners that required care not to roll.

The girls team, which comprised of Sue and Hana, seemed to comfortably and consistently put good laps on their main opposition, the PCF team of Swebbelli. During the 3hr race late in the afternoon they were even keeping pace with some of the quicker male PC1 teams (including our very own blokes team!)

The blokes result was not so clear cut, due to the lack of team members we opted for much longer stints to try and minimise pit stops. Rob did a blinding job in race 1, completing the 1 hr session in 2nd place. James then led off the 2hr event with an hour long stint after just a 15 minute interval between races. A following half hour stint each saw us finish the two hours in 1st place! By the time of the 3hr race (again only 15mins preparation) energy levels were getting low. Both Rob and James had difficult first stints (45mins each) where effort in did not seem to equal forward motion! Our second set of 45 minute stints seemed to go well and kept both GCR and Radioactive's lead to a minimum. This massive effort saw us come home 3rd place for that session.

Overall the reverse cumulative points system made us second for the day which we were very pleased with. Congratulations must go to GCR for their first win for some time and also to Radioactive Racing, both teams seemed to get stronger as the day went by. The other classes also appeared to be maintaining good pace but it was hard to keep track of their progress this time with such little spare time to watch them! Thanks to the race organisers for a great day, this includes medics (Anthony), lap timers, marshalls, and a huge thanks to the Scouts who did a remarkable job in setting up the course the day before with what seemed an incredible amount of cones! - tired now zzzzzzzzzz.

29 June 2008 – 24hrs of racing at Shennington brings home a first place and new record!

Conditions were perfect for 24hrs of racing around the smooth Shennington Karting circuit. Sunny and breezy conditions during the two days and a still but chilly night in between made the scene for a cracking weekend of racing.

The girls team would find the going tricky since only Sue and Hana were available for the race, 24hrs was pretty much out of the question for the two of them so the plan was to stop at 0000hr for 6 hrs along with the other younger classes to get some rest. This almost certainly meant throwing away any chance of winning PCF against a strong Swebbelli team. Just before the start the girls managed to recruit an extra body to help out with the first part of the race, Izzy (14yrs!) soon started churning out the laps for the girls giving the other two some vital rest early on.

The blokes team consisted of the usual suspects (John, Rob, George, Graham, James) but with the addition of the Flying Scotsman (Henry) to make up the 6 strong team. Henry was an experienced cyclist (road and mountain) but this was his first time in a pedal car, apart from a 5 minute ‘does he fit’ session outside James’ house is Bristol. Jon, Rob and George would compete the first 3 hours on 30 minutes stints before handing over to James, Henry and Graham for the next 3 hours. This race plan would continue for the full 24hrs offering a couple of hours sleep for the resting 3 people every 3 hours.

The race started pretty much bang on 1200hr with a rolling grid, Team Nemo (PC0) leading the procession before the start flag was waved as the cars crossed the start line. Momentum soon built as race speed increased. The battle for PC1 soon started to emerge as the ‘train’ of cars consisting of Bristol, Radioactive, BAR, GCR and Swebbelli started to roll. The blokes team slowly started to pull out a little lead over Radioactive, helped by a drive chain mechanical with Radioactive’s car. The girls team looked strong and the three of them managed to slowly pull away from the other Swebbelli PCF team.

After quickly building up a 7 or 8 lap lead over Radioactive Racing the blokes found it hard to increase this and by 0300hrs the gap still remained around 8 laps. Most teams suffered some sort of technical difficulties including us; the blokes managed to destroy 2 rear wheels by literally ripping the hubs out of the wheels. Careful driving brought the cars back to the pits each time. We also had a 1 lap penalty for speeding in the pit lane (ooops).

From 0300hr the blokes started once again to build on their lead, this was attributed to trouble free, consistent lap times of around 1m 07s to 1m 11s hour after hour. Since a lot of PC1 teams had decided to run similar driver strategies we found ourselves out on the track with the same people from the other teams, this proved to generate some great racing as you learn their tactics and racing lines.

1200hr on Sunday saw Henry cross the finish line for the final time for the blokes team finishing around 18 laps ahead of Radioactive Racing. Third place went to BAR who had a great battle with fourth place GCR. The girls did a cracking job considering they barely had half a team, they were regularly seen maintaining pace with other male PC1 teams in the latter half of the race showing that they certainly have the endurance for this event. Lets hope we can get a full girls team next year – contact us if you know of anyone!

10 May 2008 - 2008 season continues at Margam with great results for Bristol Racing

Both the blokes and girls team could not have wished for a better result at the bone shaking track of Mrgam Park, both brought their cars home in first place!

The race format was unusual for the BPCC and for the first time ran a 10hr race, starting at 1400hr and finishing in the dark at 0000hr. The weather was just about perfect if a little too hot for the first couple of hours, however the blue skies prolonged the official 'lighing up' time to 2100hr at which point the exciting night racing began.

The girls put in an awesome performance with just two drivers, Sue and Hana, when the rules state 5 female drivers are allowed for this event. They opted for a rotating 45 minute session in the car for the full 10 hours which gave them both 5 hours in the saddle! At just over halfway the cracking new lap counting system showed the girls 5 laps clear of their nearest rivals, car 8 of Swebbelli. However this lead was eaten away by Swebbelli, helped by a couple of 'chain issues' with our car to just 1 lap by the time the chequered flag waved at midnight! 1 lap works out at about 600m which is incredibly close after 10 hours of racing.

The blokes race was probably more incident packed than the girls this time. After the first hour 4 teams appeared to be pulling away from the rest of the field; Radioactive Racing, BAR, GCR and Bristol Racing. This track is notoriously hard on the cars with its rough surface and occasional bumps so we were nervous of technical trouble. The track claimed car failures for each of these teams throughout the race but BAR seemed to bear the brunt of it with a couple of quite long and unscheduled pit stops. By half distance the guys had pulled out about 5 laps on 2nd place Radioactive, a steady 1 lap per hour. As night fell the first of our troubles began with a headlight that proved temperamental. We had to pit two or three times to sort this out, in the end we just gaffa taped a new light to the existing one. With an hour to go we had to change the rear right wheel too; this wheel takes the majority of the load on this anticlockwise circuit and as such we had managed to take a brand new tyre down to the canvas! This same wheel also had eight broken spokes and was definitely about to give up the ghost. All this meant that over the final 5 hours we only really managed to pull out another couple of laps on Radioactive.

Overall the event was a real success, there was some superb racing in the other classes. The younger drivers showed excellent track skills by being aware of the faster cars approaching behind. The atmosphere in the pits was great with a buzz that remained for the full 10 hours, the various Scout groups really make these events vibrant. Next it's the 24hr race in June, we won this last year at Margam but this year the event moves to Shenington so we again venture into the unknown.

Official results for Round 2 can be found here (new window) when available.

Some photographs of the race are here.

13 April 2008 - Wins for both Bristol teams

The first race of the season at Shrewsbury Sports Village got off to the best start possible with a win for the blokes team in PC1 and 1st overall whilst the girls brought home a victory in the PCF class and came a brilliant 7th overall, missing out on 6th by just 1 lap.

After a sunny start weather conditions soon deteriorated and the race was blessed with showers and gusty winds throughout. The blokes team (Johnathan, Robert, Graham and James) were pushed from the very start by Radioactive Racing, Great Central Racing and BAR Racing, beating both Radioactive Racing and GCR by just a few laps. Unfortunately BAR suffered from a couple of technical problems and dropped several more laps throughout the race.

The girls team consisting of just Sue an Hana banged out an average speed of over 17mph for the 100mile distance, a superb achievement for a team of just two, especially since Hana had a bit of an episode with the car on the tight hairpin bend resulting in injuries to knees and elbows! The girls main rival in the PCF class (Swebbelli Racing) appeared to have recruited a new team member who was learning the ropes of pedal car racing. This is good news for a class that could do with more participants.

Official results for Round 1 can be found here (new window).

Some photographs of the race are here.

Current championship standings are here (new window).