Driving forward

Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate becomes the first school to enter the Student Motorsport Challenge.

Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate is driving forward new and exciting extra-curricular opportunities for its students, as it is the first ever school to participate in the Student Motorsport Challenge, which until now, had seen only universities and colleges compete.

The Student Motorsport Challenge was launched at QE by JP from Student Motorsport alongside a team from Oxford Brookes University who visited with a kit to prepare the car and coordinated a “Pit Stop Challenge” to demonstrate what is involved in building a race car. From there, Year 12 students and QE staff worked alongside Race Engineer, Will Snuggs from WJS Motorsport Engineering & Trackside to transform the standard Citroen C1 into a race-ready contender.

Within three weekends, students had already helped strip the car in preparation for fitting new race parts. The car was built in time to compete in the Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship at Croft Circuit, where the QE Motorsport Team managed a ground-breaking weekend, placing second in Class in the team’s first ever race, and fourth place in both the second and third races. QE Motorsport Team Principal, Helen Snuggs, said: “The enthusiastic student team have worked hard with our driver and have performed amazingly, experiencing everything from building a car to race meeting procedures, live pit wall timings and scrutineering.

“As the first – and only – school competing, we have broken records never been done before. Our driver, Arthur Simondet, has been so engaging and he consistently won the fastest lap for the SMC (Novice) category in our car. Now, we are looking forward to competing at Anglesey and the other four race weekends.”

Matt Clayton, Head of Co-Curricular at QE, believes that “The Student Motorsport Challenge is a marvellous opportunity for students and has become a fantastic addition to QE’s large co-curricular programme, which is always expanding. I’m thrilled with how the whole team has embraced the experience with a real sense of camaraderie and collaboration and to see a second place in our first ever race of our first ever championship is outstanding.”

To find out more about QE Motorsport, the school, and its cocurricular options, follow @queenethelburgas on Instagram. Or, if you would like to sponsor the Team QE Motorsport Team, please email motorsport@qe.org