The team at Rix Energy Services paid Hornsea Secondary a visit to uncover the story behind the Morpheus, what charged its crew of young racers, and the future of green energy after sponsoring their latest race.
In 2018, after they received the status of regional champions at Blyton Park in Gainsborough, The Morpheus crew went on to race in the International Finals, hosted at the famous Goodwood racetrack, where teams from across the globe would compete for the ultimate victory.
While it sadly wasn’t a champagne-splashing victory, the team remains positive that next season, after some transformative upgrades, they will not only win the regional event, they will place within the top 5 internationally.
The Morpheus project was born in 2016 as a result of students demonstrating a passion for high-octane motorsports. So what better way is there to introduce them to STEM field careers, and having fun at the same time, by setting them the challenge of building a race car powered by renewable energy?
Organised by Greenpower Education Trust, the challenge encourages young people across the globe to design, build, promote and race their project cars, powered entirely by renewable energy. This is of course, an initiative the team at Rix Energy Services can get behind, therefore we just had to sponsor our local team, and help them harness the power of green energy.
The Morpheus was affectionately named after the tragic passing of former English teacher, James Moorfoot at the age of 27. Since this occurred around the start of the F24 journey, the students named the car in his honour. Since then, the Morpheus has whizzed around a track every year.
We spoke with Sam Patterson, lead teacher for the project at Hornsea Secondary and Language College, who tells us - “the Morpheus crew consists of a mix of lads across various year groups that like to be part of a team and are generally car fanatics. However, the team changes annually as new recruits join us and some leave school for college. We've seen various students’ boys and girls who have different interests and strengths but all work together”.
For Sam, the most important element of the project is that “it remains fully inclusive, as a school we have a huge range of students from different backgrounds and the project facilitates this”.
We even got to see the drivers themselves practicing, whilst they’re much younger than the others due to their reduced weight, making their car lighter, they certainly know how to race.
We can’t wait to see the Morpheus return to the race track, faster than ever. And we wish them the best of luck.
