Worthing pupils take to the race track in hand-built cars

Worthing pupils put their Goblin kit cars to the test at an exciting race day organised by 150 children in the final year at their school.
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Each of the six year-six classes at Chesswood Junior School built a car, designed the bodywork and gained sponsorship for their team before going head-to-head on the school field.

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See Worthing pupils compete at kit car race day

Chris Yelling, year-six leader, said: “Each chief executive has organised their entire class and are responsible for this entire event, although the whole class has been involved and every person has had a job on race day.”

Six classes in total lined up for Goblin Race Day at Chesswood Junior School, Worthing. Picture: Steve Robards SR1917264Six classes in total lined up for Goblin Race Day at Chesswood Junior School, Worthing. Picture: Steve Robards SR1917264
Six classes in total lined up for Goblin Race Day at Chesswood Junior School, Worthing. Picture: Steve Robards SR1917264
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Jobs included engineer, mechanic, driver, designer, media team, organising merchandise to entertainment, with each class having a chief executive to oversee it all.

Ioanna Stamati, 11, manager of the media team for the Swift Jaguars, said: “Our job was to make a website, take photos and videos and do interviews. The interviews were the hardest thing to film because people found it hard to concentrate.

“We planned the day out all ourselves. The best bit was working as a team.”

The battery-powered cars took about a month to build, including creating a design for the bodywork using recycled materials.

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Imogen Eyre, 11, said: “We all built a tiny part of the car. There is a certain way to build the car but then you can do your own design.

“I think it is quite nice having an actual race day so our work has not gone to waste. That is amazing.”

Races included a slalom through cones, tyre change challenge, chicane race with tight turns and drag race to test the fastest.

Driver Louis Lainchbury-Hands, 11, said: “We had a trial and it was really tough because the engineers were all shouting out to win. It was a lot of pressure.

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“Driving on the day was quite challenging but it is quite exciting sitting in there.”

Deputy mayor and mayoress Lionel and Karen Harman and town crier Bob Smytherman were guests of honour and judged the best design competition, picking 6HBees as the winner, Spruce Moose in second place and Raptor Rampage in third.

Class 6CY with its shiny silver Spruce Moose was overall winner, with 6HBees in second place and Swift Jaguars third.

Other results were:

Slalom, 1 Spruce Moose, 2 28 pyeoneers, 3 6HBees.

Tyre change challenge, 1 Spruce Moose, 2 Success U, 3 6HBees.

Chicane race, 1 6HBees, 2 Spruce Moose, 3 Swift Jaguars.

Drag race, 1 Spruce Moose, 2 6HBees, 3 Swift Jaguars.