Climping champions celebrate top victory

Always ready to race, the pupils at St Marys have now been crowned Greenpower Champion of Champions

The youngsters from St Mary’s CE Primary School, Climping, were hailed the Champion of Champions at this year’s Greenpower Gobin tournament.

Hundreds of people watched the spectacle, held at the iconic Goodwood Motor Circuit on Sunday.

Year-five and six pupils Ben Sizmur, Landon Jones, Faith Crewes, Leo Dearnley, Rihianna Dineen, Nathan Rees, Henry Wallis, Dennison Grimwood and Libby Lavell each took to the track to battle against more than 80 other teams from across the country.

Parent Chris Dearnley, who helps run the group alongside Bob Jones, said: “I would say this is the best team we’ve had. It’s a fantastic achievement for us. We’re national champions!”

Team McLymping, as they are known, raced their two electric kit-cars across three disciplines during the day.

They tackled the sprint, drag and slalom, picking up second in both the sprint and drag and third in the slalom.

The final challenge for the youngsters came in the form of a timed lap around the track’s 2.4-miles.

Ben and Landon were tasked with completing the distance, racing in the teams’ two cars, Typhoon and Tornado.

But it wasn’t an easy task as they were both randomly selected to start from the back of the grid.

Chris said: “Through the luck of the draw, they started 80th – almost the very back of the grid – but they managed to come first and second overall, which was a great achievement.

“This feat is not to be underestimated, having to get from the back of the grid, to nearly the front is fraught with danger in overtaking the other, often less skilled cars, when you can easily be taken out by inexperienced drivers. Astonishingly, the winning time was within seconds of the all-time course record – but the team wasn’t too disheartened in hearing this – as the record is held by fellow team member Leo Dearnley.”

Upon hearing that they had been crowned Champion of Champions, Chris said they went ‘ballistic’ and were ‘jumping up and down celebrating’.

Other pupils who had helped the team this year included Stan Brand, Megan Brown, Georgia Gillam and Max Tospell.