An Outstanding Day of Racing for Team Firefly at Bedford Autodrome

Firefly Racing traveled to a windy Bedford Autodrome last Sunday, 8 June, competing in the latest rounds of the Greenpower competition.

With the Sixth Form on study leave and many other team members away on DofE, they took a slightly smaller and less experienced – but no less determined – team and came away victorious.

Greenpower had not been to Bedford since 2019, and this year, in a surprise to all the teams, were running the track in reverse – one of very few anti-clockwise circuits on the calendar. The team set up the car for morning free practice, making adjustments as they learned the track.

In the first F24 race, the car was competitive, but the team took the decision to retire it in order to set it up for the senior (16–25 age group) F24+ race in the middle of the day. The senior race may have seemed straightforward to spectators, but behind the scenes the team were constantly making strategy decisions on the pit wall, based on the performance of the car and the sizeable gap they had pulled to the car in second place. Managing their race pace, Strategy Engineer Zubin (Lower Eighth) and Race Engineer Ehan (Fifth) were in constant contact with driver Vyom (Lower Eighth), in the car for the first time this season.

With the strong wind affecting everyone’s performance, the team were very conscious of pulling too big a gap and being caught at the end of the race, which happened at the previous race at the Lotus factory in Norfolk (another windy day), where they were pipped on the last lap.

Learning from this, they took the decision to turn the car down in the middle of the race, saving energy but leaving everyone with a nervous last ten minutes holding out in the lead as the cars behind tried to close the gap. In the end, the strategy worked out perfectly and they crossed the line to win, almost a full lap ahead of second place.

This was their second win of the season, and leaves them on top of the F24+ Kit car championship table. With the two best results of the season plus the result at the Final determining the championship, Firefly are in a very strong position, and whilst all attention will turn to the International Final at Goodwood in October, in the meantime the team now have the chance to use races at Blyton Park in July and Dunsfold Park in September to further hone the car.

In the afternoon F24 race, the team executed their race plans smoothly, with drivers Sebastian, Leo and William (all Fourth Form), Race Engineer Veer (Fourth Form), and Daniel (Fourth Form), Kevin (Fifth Form) and Sam (Lower Eighth) on the pit wall. The car went well, just missing out on the podium, coming home fourth behind a very strong team from Frensham Heights School.

In the F24 competition, the team are in a very good position to qualify for the International Final, having already put in what should be a qualifying performance at Mallory Park in May. However, they have one more race at Dunsfold Park to seal qualification and are hoping to achieve their best ever finish in the championship at the Final.

Alongside the racing on track, Vyom’s EPQ project on vehicle dynamics won the Portfolio Award on Sunday, further demonstrating the quality of Firefly’s engineering.

Back at the ‘factory’, the team are now working on various upgrades and projects, including advanced battery and motor analysis to try to extract the maximum performance possible for the rest of the season, as well as continuing work on their new car – Firefly FF05.