Our students had the chance to take the wheel of a car which can travel at more than 300mph.

Our enthusiastic engineers and designers looked around the high performance dragster from Santa Pod raceway when it visited our school earlier today.

They examined its components and sat in its cockpit and had the opportunity to quiz Track Manager Darren Prentice and his assistant David Warren about the technology that goes into the car.

Mr Prentice said: “We hope the students took away a lot from our visit. The great thing about motorsport is the amount of science, technology and engineering which goes into the vehicles.

“Even people from the world of Formula One are amazed at the power we can create with the little we have. This is possible because the technology is so advanced.

“Junior drag racing starts from the age of eight and we hope our visit will inspire the students to find out more about the sport and the industry.

“Motorsport is one of the largest employers in Northamptonshire so there are lots of careers out there.”

The event was organised by Norman Bristow who started visiting the track in 1971 and went on to work at the track as a team mechanic, an international safety inspector and in race control.

Mr Bristow, whose daughter Natalie attends CTS, said: “The students here are very technical and I thought they would enjoy learning about Santa Pod and the dragsters.

“Drag racing is the most exciting sport in the world – watching a race is a total assault on the senses.”

One of the students who sat in the vehicle’s cockpit was Marissa from 8S.

She said: “The talk about the dragsters was very interesting and I was really keen to get into the car. The cockpit was a lot smaller than I expected it to be.”

To find out more about Santa Pod click here

To see more pictures from the visit click here