Antrim Grammar team speeds into Goodwood finals
ANTRIM Grammar’ School’s Formula 24 race team is one of only two schools in Ireland to qualify for the the Greenpower International final at Goodwood circuit this weekend, Sunday 18th October.
The Greenpower Education Trust is a UK based charity which gets young people enthusiastic about science and engineering by challenging them to design, build and race an electric car. The Greenpower challenge uses the excitement of motorsport to inspire young people to excel in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).
More than 10,000 students take part each year, from primary school age through to university.
A growing number of international teams participate in our events and the USA, Iberia, and Benelux run programmes under the Greenpower license.
The Antrim Grammar team is unique in that their car is fully electric and races under an organisation called Greenpower Formula 24. The team have had a stratospheric rise in the competition and built a car that is hoping to break into the top 10 in the world.
The team is made up of the school’s top electrical and mechanical engineering pupils as well as a PR team who run social media content and networking, a young Formula 1 driver and an Ulster Karting champion.
Mr Peter Campbell, Design & Technology Subject Leader at the school has been involved in Greenpower racing for almost 10 years.
In 2024 Camden Group (based beside Antrim Grammar) agreed to come on board to sponsor the industry led educational programme.
They initially gave around £7000 to buy the kit and get started and the rest is history.
The programme was advertised as a opportunity to push the most promising engineering talent and the response was significant within the school and surrounding Antrim community.
The first race was in May 2025 and the team has never looked back.
The team works with industry to develop the race car, displaying independent learning at its best.
Pupils benefit from working with Camden Group, using their commercial processes to help give a competitive advantage.
“The pupils in the team are naturally intuitive and cognitively stimulated by the challenge they faced.” said Mr Campbell.
“They became obsessed with the project alongside their studies and as they innovated and developed the car, performance went hand in hand. Antrim is a big commercial town and so parents were invested too and came along side to help when they could.
“We also have two successful racing drivers in school that brought performance on track, Jason Park races in the Ulster Karting championship, currently sitting on top of the rankings and Andie Stewart races for a team across Europe and recently secured a place on the Formula 1 young drivers programme.
“This meant that every development was optimised on track as they racing craft ensured every corner of the track had the best racing line.
“Getting to Goodwood this year places us amongst the best in the world almost 100 cars from all over the world and will be another valuable experience for the team as we race on this legendary race circuit.”
The car operates on two 12V batteries and the aim is to cover the highest distance across a 90 minute race.
Mr Campbell continued: “Last year we were 26th at Goodwood in our first year, but the teams in front come from huge private schools and privately funded teams with huge budgets.
“For us to break into this bracket with the small budget we have access to, would probably put a few English noses out of joint. However, we are ambitious and think this is achievable if everything goes to plan.
“The front runners are miles and years ahead of us in performance, but give us a few years and you never know, but we are certainly closing the gap quickly.
“Many of our team members have no interest in traditional schools sports like hockey or rugby, so the fact that we have a club like this that pushes our top STEM pupils to their limits is certainly exciting. Camden Group have been a great supporter of our endeavours.
“They have supplied materials and professional support to the team showing us how to use industrial processes we cannot complete in school and educating our team members so they can become proficient in manufacturing and using materials not readily available.
“We have also been supported by Steven Park who has a mechanic background working for the DVA and running his sons karting team on the side, his input has been invaluable.
“Another member of the community who has been a massive help is Hugh Matchett a retried local mechatronics engineer with an aerospace background.”