The NC Graphics MACH 1 Racing Car Challenge added fun to the exhibition, while at the same time raising awareness of F1 in Schools.

The NC Graphics MACH 1 Racing Car Challenge added fun to the exhibition, while at the same time raising awareness of F1 in Schools and Denford, who do such as excellent job of promoting the engineering industry in schools. In between the scheduled races, the visiting public were able to race tests cars at £1 a go - all money raised was in aid of the CLIC charity, which provides help for children with cancer and their families. There were 3 groups: 1.

Exhibitors Championship (Group A) The entrants designed their own cars from scratch and machined them, using NC Graphics Depocam software.

Taking part were Datron Technology, Excel Machine Tools, Mori Seki, Kennametal UK, Coburg Engineering and Joseph Rhodes.

2.

Media Partners Championship Entrants from the media were provided with a ready-made standard car, which they finished to their liking in corporate colours.

Metalworking Production, Mould Technology, production engineering Solutions, Quality Today, The Engineer, Machinery Market and Connecting Industry / Design Solutions took part.

3.

Exhibitors Championship (Group B) This was the same as for the Media Partners, but for exhibiting companies.

Entrants were Fenn Tool, Coventry Toolholders, Marposs, Jones and Shipman International and Mitutoyo (UK).

The NC Graphics MACH 1 Racing Car Challenge - The Winning Teams The Heats: Watching the lights count down, teams set their cars off down the 20m track in a number of heats, driven by new compact CO2 (carbon dioxide gas) power-plants.

For each heat, each car was given 3 manual starts and 3 based on reaction times.

The team with the fastest time overall was the winner.

The Overall Winners: 1st Place: Joseph Rhodes Ben Jennings (Group A) Car Name - Rhodester (Arrowhead design, aluminium wheels, needle roller bearings, colour - metallic blue) Group Rhodes is one of Europe's largest Original Equipment Manufacturers in its field, supplying an extensive range of machinery for Metal-forming, Material Handling, and Special Purpose applications.

The Group also specialises in the design, manufacture and commissioning of Technical Fabrications and Structural Assemblies for the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry.

Group Companies actively manufacture and market over fifty basic product ranges, although pride is taken in the ability to design, develop and manufacture bespoke machinery and complete turnkey solutions.

2nd Place: Design Solutions Tom 'D, D, D and D' Curtiss (Media Partner) Team Name - Connecting Industry Car Name - Industrial Force Choosing the colours and painting the car was the easy bit, decided on the driver was more difficult.

We decided to go with the BIG TC 'Tom Curtiss' due to his vast experience with a number of vehicles in a short space of time.

3rd Place: Fenn Tools .

Gary Ridgeway (Group B) Team Name - Fenn Tigers Fenn Tool is a major supplier to the F1 industry supplying the majority of PCD and solid carbide tools to all the leading players.

Fenn would like to point out that no animals were harmed in the testing of their car.

Fenn are worried that their success in the NC Graphics challenge will promote takeover bids from the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and BAR.

'NC Graphics would like to thank everyone that took part and supported this event.' says Estelle Dunsmuir, Marketing Manager for NC Graphics.

'The racing was a huge success at MACH, with participants and members of the public saying how much they enjoyed watching.

It was amazing to see just how competitive the teams were, but at the same time they had great fun.

We achieved everything that we wanted to at the show.

Raising awareness of F1 in Schools, Denford, CLIC and of course NC Graphics CAD / CAM software, including Depocam which was recently awarded SolidWorks Certified CAM Partner status.