Inver Racers Ask Local Businesses to Support Silverstone Bid

With less than 3 weeks to go until the Inver Racers team leave for the Greenpower Trust international final in Silverstone, they are still looking for support.

The Inver Racers are a group of four Inverclyde Academy pupils who have been taking part in West College Scotland’s Greenpower programme in partnership with Developing the Young Workforce (West Region).

**Above:** The Inver Racers team at a recent qualifier event

The Greenpower course aims to teach young people about engineering by building and racing a Formula 24 Race Car.

The programme engages pupils in engineering and other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects which will allow them to take the fast track to a career in engineering, construction or another STEM subject.

Greenpower is delivered by West College Scotland’s motor vehicle and engineering team and continues to go from strength to strength, with new teams for 2019/20 just getting started. The Inver Racers team also attend college for a vocational car body repair course alongside their schoolwork as part of the programme.

The Inver Racers have had to run their team like a business, raising money and securing sponsorship from local businesses and the team recently took part in the qualifying race at East Fortune where they came first in the Kit Car Category and are currently sitting as first in Scotland as a result.

This led to the team qualifying for the international final on 17^th October at Silverstone, the home of British motor racing, and the team now need to raise money to fund this trip. The team were recently visited by Scotland’s deputy first minister John Swinney MSP who congratulated the boys on their success and gave the team his full support.

**Above:** Inver Racers winning first place at East Fortune

The team still has a lot of fundraising to do, due to this being further than any race the team have been to and will need travel and accommodation costs, parts to fix up their kart, food costs, and even costs for equipment and team jumpers etc. to look great as they support Inverclyde and fly the flag for Scotland against the rest of the world.

To cover the costs to the International final, the team are contacting existing and new potential sponsors and are engaging businesses on social media and the team’s Just Giving page to raise funds.

High-level sponsors will benefit from having their logo added to the car and exposure on social media throughout the experience for this competition which will have an international audience. There will also be film crew in attendance so its great publicity for the team and sponsors.

If any local companies can offer sponsorship please contact the team at inverracers@outlook.com or visit the Just Giving page. Raffle tickets are also available so please do all you can to get the team to Silverstone and represent both Inverclyde and Scotland.