Boreatton Racing, part of The BEASTs (Boreatton Science And Engineering Team) took part in the 73rd National Scoutcar Championships with BERP our newly engineered pedalcar that we’ve been working on over the last term or two.
We invited the explorers to come and race as well because they could never get organised enough to build their own and we'll all be explorers one day, well except me!
Explorers Division 1 Grand Prix 2nd place, Leaders race 2nd place (that was me as Alan was a bit too worried about bending BERP he didn't push though the back markers.
most travelled entry :) and, of course, the main prize for the event - Best Engineered Pedalcar.
We invited the explorers to come and race as well because they could never get organised enough to build their own and we'll all be explorers one day, well except me!
Anyway, we thought we would combine it with a trip to the Cliffhanger Outdoors show and make a weekend camp out of it seeing as we were travelling so far. However, the organisers turned out to be a bit more indoorsy than scouts and cancelled the show when there was a spot of rain forecast! Arghh! – plan B! We managed to book dirt-buggies for the Sunday – dirt-buggies love the rain!
We've never been pedal car racing before so didn't know what to expect but we should have known – national scout events are always great fun!
BERP (Boreatton Experimental Recumbent Pedalcar) was a new entry so we had to start at the bottom of Division 2 for scouts and Division 1 for the explorers, but from the start you could see that the BEASTs’ dedication and engineering skills had created a winner – BERP is small and low, but in smart Boreatton Old Gold and Blue livery, he looked sleek and fast on the start line.
As the lights turned green he slid seemingly effortlessly into the lead and continued to accelerate away from the rest of the field. Almost silently, compared to the other racers, he stunned the commentary team as the scouts lapped and re-lapped the opposition – Way to go BEASTs! Winning, and in style!
Unfortunately the explorers didn’t have the same mechanical empathy and the drive chain came off three times, but even with lost time in the pits they won the Division 1 Team competition and came second in the Division 1 Grand Prix! They lost at least a couple of laps in the pits as BERP was repaired and then repaired again but each time they came back out and cruised through the field and were catching the eventual winners in the final laps, but not quickly enough... despite the largest, brightest (cool team T-shirts) and noisiest support in the paddock...
As the lights turned green he slid seemingly effortlessly into the lead and continued to accelerate away from the rest of the field. Almost silently, compared to the other racers, he stunned the commentary team as the scouts lapped and re-lapped the opposition – Way to go BEASTs! Winning, and in style!
Unfortunately the explorers didn’t have the same mechanical empathy and the drive chain came off three times, but even with lost time in the pits they won the Division 1 Team competition and came second in the Division 1 Grand Prix! They lost at least a couple of laps in the pits as BERP was repaired and then repaired again but each time they came back out and cruised through the field and were catching the eventual winners in the final laps, but not quickly enough... despite the largest, brightest (cool team T-shirts) and noisiest support in the paddock...
So – a triumph for the BEASTs – we won all but 2 of the qualifiers (one when a scout took BERP flying over the tyre wall and when he rejoined he came back to 2nd running out track as he tried to overhaul the leader) and the eventual trophy haul was: Scout Division 2 Team Champions, Sprint Champion, Grand Prix winners, Explorer Division 1 Team Champions,
Explorers Division 1 Grand Prix 2nd place, Leaders race 2nd place (that was me as Alan was a bit too worried about bending BERP he didn't push though the back markers.
most travelled entry :) and, of course, the main prize for the event - Best Engineered Pedalcar.
Wayne Bulpitt – the UK Chief Commissioner was there to present prizes (mostly to Boreatton!)
and sit in the BEAST Pedalcar!
Way to go BERP and Boreatton Racing scouts!
and sit in the BEAST Pedalcar!
After that, the next day’s dirt buggy racing seemed destined to be anticlimactic – but hey – they’re Dirt Buggies! – you can’t do anticlimax with dirt buggies!
Lots of Mud and grippy carts at the limit. Great fun...
This report is partly plagiarized from the explorer blog as my computer's messing about. Alan has put loads of photos here but I've got more video as soon as I can convert MP4 to wmv....
Pete (using Alan's ID)
Lots of Mud and grippy carts at the limit. Great fun...
This report is partly plagiarized from the explorer blog as my computer's messing about. Alan has put loads of photos here but I've got more video as soon as I can convert MP4 to wmv....
Pete (using Alan's ID)
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