DORCHESTER Thomas Hardye students are the new British champions of school dragster racing.

The teenagers' cheap and simple design, called Tried and Untested, crossed the line first to claim the Formula Fracmo sprint title at the Ford Greenpower finals.

The environmentally friendly vehicle, designed and built by Year 13 students, finished each of the three 200-metre heats in just 20 seconds at the Goodwood race circuit in Sussex.

Electronics tutor Alan Rowse said: "It's excellent for the team because they've put in a lot of hard work in their spare time.

"Each car has to have a parachute brake, at least three wheels and two electronic motors, so we tried to keep our design simple with limited resources.

"The other teams looked a lot more professional and we thought we were going to get smashed, but we ended up winning quite comfortably in the end."

In the main Greenpower race, atrocious weather conditions put paid to the challenge of the two Weymouth schools - All Saints and Wey Valley.

The team that completes the most laps in six hours wins the race, but pouring rain and a sodden track meant organisers had to end the race two hours early, ruining the tactics of both schools, whose strategy was based on endurance.

All Saints school helper Carol Keane said: "Our car is built more for endurance, rather like the tortoise and the hare, so when they made a decision to end the race early our hopes of winning were gone.

"But it is a very worthwhile project and we are already looking for sponsors for next year's challenge."

Mary Critchell, business link developer at Wey Valley School, said that, despite the early finish, the team were pleased.

She added: "It was a real test. They were absolutely soaked through and the car was not designed to cope with such torrential rain, so they had to call on all their teamwork skills to cope with the problems."

Greenpower was created to promote both the theoretical and practical elements of engineering in schools.