'I shall remember this day for the rest of my life!  It has been fantastic.' Thank you all so much.'

Kevin O'Donnell, St. Joseph's R.C. Primary School, Billingham

'I'm so excited, I think I'm going to burst!  My Mum will be so pleased we did it!  That was brilliant!'

A very small racing driver from Billingham!

What an amazing day that was!  We arrived at 7:30 to put the final touches to everything and by 8:30 the first of the 33 teams had arrived.  The 2008 National Final had begun!

Some schools had travelled the day before from the far flung corners of the UK and by 9:15 most of the competitiors had arrived.  The day had started very early for many schools and there were a few bleary eyed 'drivers' walking around the pit area!  But not for long!  Les Ratcliffe from Jaguar Cars welcomed everyone to the Centre and gave a short talk outlining why Jaguar encourage students to take up a career in engineering and why maths was so important to them.

After this, the teachers went on a tour of the Museum and the 88 students competing for the title of 'National Champions' started work on a special 'one off' track plan which, for the second year, had been produced for us by Izzy Moran, aged 14. Thanks Izzy - you did very well!

With only 90 minutes to measure and scale the track plan, set up their car and calculate their pitstop and fuel strategy (the weather forecast was evidently 'really atrocious' according to one Age Range 1 driver!), the pressure was on, but, to the credit of everyone taking part, the cars were all on the starting grid by the time the track marshals said 'Stop!'.  It was now time for lunch and  a treasure hunt in the Museum!

The afternoon session started gently enough, with Dale Tromans, from Wigmore High School, Herefordshire, winning the treasure hunt (he got all the answers correct).  He was presented with a scale model that commemorated 60 years of Jaguar Land Rover, sponsored by the Heritage Motor Centre.

Then the real competition started.  It was time for the Teacher's Race...... it looked like things were about to get serious! The children were really excited but the teachers did look somewhat apprehensive!  This year was only the third time we have run this race and who could have predicted what would happen? In a short race at Monaco between the teachers representing each of the Finalist schools, Jill Rothwell (better known as Mrs. MiM to her pupils!) from Philips High School, Bury, beat Andrew Butler, from Whixall Primary School, Shropshire, by just 0.52 of a second! The lead changed no less that 9 times during the race! The screaming and shouting was intense (especially when the children joined in too!). Jill's car moved steadily up the leader board throughout the race and took the lead with just 4 laps to go.  She won a magnum of champagne, some F1 Monaco Grand Prix memorabilia and a Jaguar presentation pen and pencil set. Well done Jill and Andrew and a big 'thank you' to all of the teachers for being such good sports!  The pictures below show Wendy Richardson presenting them with their prizes.

Jill Rothwell Philips High School	Andrew Butler Whixall Primary School

Following a very interesting talk from Graham Corbyn, the Head of Achievement Networks at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, Brian Richardson, the Challenge National Organiser, thanked everyone for taking part and the sponsors for their continued support.  Brian also thanked all of the teachers who worked with the teams throughout the year and then built up the tension before starting the race of the day!

It was time to start the National Final! The race started off as expected with furious overtaking and blocking manoeuvres from many of the drivers but it soon settled down to the strategy of it all. Pitstops galore, tyre changes and refuelling all came into play and the anticipation of what was to come created an electric, almost deafening, atmosphere! A year of mathematics had been poured into all this and the tension and emotion was showing. Who would win? Have we got our maths right? Are our strategies up to it? Have we taken too much of a risk? All was being unravelled before our very eyes! Fists were clenched, faces were screwed up, eyes were closed and, for some, it was simply too much to bear and when Lap 2 started it got even worse!

As the race went on, some cars fell by the wayside and some ran out of fuel just before their planned pitstops.  The leader changed several times in what was a long race but eventually up came the results to a mixture of massive cheers and a little disappointment. It was over and what a fantastic race it had been!

Everyone who took part was presented with a commemorative trophy, a Jaguar hat and 'goody bag' and a framed certificate for their school.  The teams in 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in each of the 3 Age Categories proudly stepped up to be presented with their prizes by Graham Corbyn. Well done to Philips High School, Bury (Age Range 3 - Qwizdom voting system class pack), Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys, Kent (Age Range 2 - Graphic calculators class pack from Rapid Electronics) and St. Joseph's R.C. Primary School, Stockton on Tees (Age Range 1 - i-desk Solutions computer system and desk) for winning your age categories and a particular 'Well done' goes to Ben Howarth and Michael Ruskin from Philips High who are our 'Overall Champions' for 2008.  They were greeted with a tremendous cheer when they stepped up to be awarded with their prizes and they deserved it too because they had beaten off some really stiff competition.  The second and third place prizes were sponsored by Alta Systems, Swallow Systems and all the cups and trophies were donated by Rewards 4 Schools.

At the National Final we run a single 'all against all race' with prizes being awarded to the first three finishing schools in each age category. Here are the winning three schools and a table that shows where everyone finished. Click here to see lots more pictures that we took at the Final - but have a look at the table first!

                                                                 Philips High School
                                                                           Bury

Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys Kent	St. Joseph's R.C. Primary Stockton on Tees

Well, that's it for the 2007/8 Challenge - it's over!  The dust has settled, the smoke has cleared and the cars are all safely in Parc Ferme!   Whether your school is 1st or 33rd on this list you should be very proud of yourselves for even getting to the National Final.  In our eyes, you are all winners so we hope you enjoyed the day and will try to do it all over again next year so don't forget............. enjoy your maths - it really can be fun!

• © 2008 Cambridgeshire Software House
• Site Map Terms Designed by LSS Interactive