What a weekend! The opening round of the National Hovercraft Championships over the long bank holiday at Allerton Park had absolutely everything: pristine new machinery, almost textbook podium finishes, a missing silencer, a disintegrating belt, and a little bit of last-lap drama to keep the heart rate up.
We arrived at the paddock with a two-craft lineup: Joshua in the faithful F50 and Jake debuting the brand-new F1 craft. With a new formula for Jake and a long weekend of racing ahead, we knew it would be a steep learning curve—but the team stepped up massively.
Here is how the action unfolded over three action-packed days.
Saturday: Scrutineering Success & Strong Starts
The first job of the weekend was getting the new F1 craft official. It had to go through initial scrutineering and a 10-minute float test, both of which it passed without a single issue. With practice out of the way and both craft running beautifully, it was time to race.
- F50 & F1 Races: Josh kicked things off in the F50 with a brilliant start, cruising to a very comfortable 2nd place. Jake followed it up with an incredible debut in the F1, driving maturity beyond his experience to take 3rd.
- The First Open Race: Josh started on pole with Jake near the back of the grid. Predictably, the roaring F1 craft behind Josh caught up early on, but he managed a respectable 3rd. Meanwhile, Jake sliced through the field from the back to take an incredible 1st place finish!
- Race 2: Josh delivered more of the same with a confident 2nd in the F50. Jake backed up his earlier performance with an excellent 2nd in the F1, and more importantly, his lap times were consistently dropping.
Saturday Open: The day wrapped up with the second Open race. Jake lined up on pole with Josh in 3rd, and after a clean race, that is exactly how they crossed the line.
Sunday: Liquid Sunshine and Missing Machinery
Sunday brought the classic British racing staples: wind and rain. But spirits were high, and the weather didn’t slow the team down.
The F50 Dominates
In the first F50 race, Josh lined up in 2nd. When the lights went out, a broken throttle cable on the pole-sitter’s craft opened the door. Josh seized the lead and drove a flawless 8 laps to take the win! He followed this up later in the afternoon with another rock-solid 2nd place.
Jake’s Flying Form & The Mud Bath
Jake got off to a flying start in the morning F1 race, slotting straight into 2nd and holding it to the flag.
In the Open race, he had an uncharacteristic slow start from pole, dropping to 2nd at the first corner with Josh right behind him in 3rd. However, after the drop onto the lake, Jake dropped a large handful of throttle, gliding past Team Patchwork to retake the lead for the rest of the race, while Josh held down 3rd.
The final F1 race of the day saw Jake secure another 2nd, but disaster struck. One of his thrust engine silencers came off and vanished into the water near the transition. Despite Jake taking a lengthy, freezing mud bath to find it, the lake wouldn’t give it up.
Paddock Ingenuity: With the silencer gone, the engineering caps went on. We managed to fashion a temporary replacement using our spare lift exhaust! Unfortunately, it wasn’t ready in time for Jake to make the final Open race, but Josh carried the team flag home to finish 2nd.
Monday: Mechanical Gremlins & Aerodynamic Exploits
The final day was all about consolidation and survival.
Josh started Monday exactly how he spent most of the weekend: launching the F50 straight out of the blocks for another 2nd place.
Jake had another successful run in the F1, crossing the line in 3rd. However, upon inspection back in the paddock, we discovered the thrust belt was a massive 20mm narrower than when it started! The drive pulley flange had come off, effectively chewing up the belt. After several valiant attempts to fix it in the field, we made the executive call to retire the craft to prevent further damage and repair it properly back in the workshop.
This left Josh to fly the flag solo for the rest of the day:
- Formula Open: Josh came home 2nd behind the more powerful F1 craft.
- Final F50 Race: Josh just needed to complete the race to secure his overall weekend standing. He drove a sensible race to finish a respectable 3rd.
- The Grand Finale (Open Race): A small mistake on the first lap at the end of the lake pushed Josh down to 4th. He held position well, but a tiny lapse in concentration on the final lap saw Josh standing the craft completely on its end, flying down the lake!
The Final Standings
All in all, it was a superb first round with an absolute mountain of learnings for the new F1 craft. We are incredibly proud of how both drivers handled a long, testing weekend.
| Driver | Championship Class | Overall Weekend Position |
| Jake | Formula 1 | 3rd Place 🥉 |
| Josh | Formula 50 | 2nd Place 🥈 |
| Josh | Formula 2 | 3rd Place 🥉 |
| Josh | Formula Open | 2nd Place 🥈 |
A massive thank you to everyone who helped us out in the paddock, especially during the silencer search and the belt drama. On to the next one!
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