FSUK

Two weeks ago myself and UH Racing were preparing for Formula Student UK at Silverstone. Tensions were high within the team, as we approached the last few days before competition and started to pull together the finishing touches for both the statics and dynamic events.

With key roles within the team for competition, I was part of the business team, a driver, bodywork manufacturer and I also spent a lot of time in the dynamic areas over the course of the weekend. UH Racing’s event timetable for the weekend was almost perfect, allowing for all static events and the start of scrutineering on Thursday, leaving Friday available for testing the car before dynamic events on Saturday and Sunday.

SO MANY DRIVER BANDS!

The team went into scrutineering straight from the design and cost events on Thursday morning, after securing 20th place in the que just a few days prior to competition. With six areas of scrutineering to pass, we were lucky to get into the que so early, and to get through scrutineering so quickly was also a mean feat for the team. By the end of Thursday we had got through the very busy Tech and Safety inspections.

UH Racing's Pit Area

After a few timing complications we finally presented our business case to the judges on Thursday afternoon. Even though there were some technical hitches, the judges loved our presentation and our business idea of a race series based in the Middle East and the short video I produced to go along with it.

At 8:30am on Friday, the team were back in the queue to go through the chassis, tilt, noise and brake tests to complete the final part of scrutineering. The car zoomed straight through chassis and tilt tests, and after a small modification to our exhaust we passed noise as well, before locking all four wheels on our first attempt and passing the brake test.

UH19's complete scrutineering sticker!

The team spent all afternoon Friday testing, and it was great! After a small oil pressure issue which was quickly solved; we completed five practice sessions, and I finally got to turn a wheel around a skid-pad-like track. The car handled really well, and once a few suspension tweaks had been made we stopped lifting the inside rear wheel as well. Friday’s testing was followed by a quick game of “Rock Paper Scissors” between the four drivers to decide who could take the car around a parade lap of the Silverstone National Circuit. And much to the other’s disappointment I won. It was great to drive around such an iconic circuit, even if it wasn’t at full throttle. After the session I was interviewed by a camera crew, (I still haven’t seen the interview so if anyone finds it then do let me know!).

Some of the team just before the Parade lap

Saturday bought along an emotional time for myself, with the anniversary of my Dad’s death that same day. It was great for the team to allow me to add a small tribute to the car for the day.

The comparison of my first time in a kart with my Dad, to my first weekend in UH19. Also showing the tribute on the car.

With an early start and three events to participate in: acceleration, skid-pad and sprint/autocross, Saturday was a very long day. Starting off in acceleration, we put in two initial acceleration times, before heading over the skid-pad in the fear that the ques were so large we wouldn’t be able to complete each event in the time available. Luckily the ques for skid-pad were much shorter than acceleration, so following four excellent skid-pad runs (the maximum amount available) we managed to get back over to acceleration to complete our final two runs before we were out of time. With some dubious thoughts over the auto-shift system and no shift lights working on the dash, I put in two manual shift acceleration runs, surprisingly with the fastest times for the team that weekend. At the end of my final acceleration run, I pulled back into the pit lane to be met by the team who told me that not only had I just put in the teams fastest acceleration time, but we had also come 12th in the business presentation! It was amazing that against all odds we’d managed to pull out good results, and I can honestly say that I inside my race helmet I shed a tear.

On the way to Acceleration (photo courtesy of Aaron Lynch)

The sprint/autocross event began on Saturday afternoon, where the endurance drivers got to have a quick sneak peek at the track for endurance on Sunday (as the same track is used for both events). While watching the sprint event, the team were disappointed to hear to commentator, Sam Collins say that our car was looking plain this year; with little effort put in to the livery. But don’t you worry Sam, I’m currently working on improving it for FS Germany, so you can come and visit us and sing us some praise!

Sunday bought with it the much anticipated endurance event, where two drivers have to cover a collective 22km around the marked out circuit. Our endurance event was very exciting with it being labelled as the “Battle of Britain” following our strong fight on track with UK rivals Team Bath Racing. We managed to complete the endurance event with a very good time, and got great publicity for both the car and team. The team were absolutely ecstatic at the end of the event, climbing the fences as one of the drivers’ Tristan, bought the car over the finishing line using just 3.2l of petrol.

The results achieved by the team over the weekend were very impressive, and as a low budget team we managed to finish the event in 9th place, and the 2nd UK University; up with the “big boys” such as Stuttgart, Graz and KIT.

UH Racing and Edith Cowan University at FSUK

All of this was followed by a great after-party with the Edith Cowan University Racing’s Aussie team who had been staying at UH Racing’s headquarters in the run up to competition. We sure partied hard to make the most of our top 10 finishes, with live music, free burgers, free drink and a lot of crazy shenanigans to go along with it. Some of the parts I remember the most were people being carried back to their tents, falling flat on my face in the middle of a game of Flunkyball (I wasn’t the only one) and a lot of running. I also remember a lot of the team being very hungover the next morning. I was also one of team UH team members who weas lucky enough to swap for an ECU tshirt, I will treasure my shift forever, (and always remember I was the first female ECU team member to ever go to competition *wink*).

UH Racing’s amazing results:

Cost: 11th Position

Business: 12th Position

Design: 23rd Position

Acceleration: 43rd Position

Skid-Pad: 19th Position

Sprint/Autocross: 24th Position

Endurance: 12th Position

Efficiency: 14th Position

Overall: 9th Position

Katie x