Rainworth youngsters smash speed record - twice

But unlike the famed daredevil who broke both the land and water speed records in the 1960s, the youngsters at Joseph Whitaker School smashed the existing world speed record for a rocket-powered model car.

The members of the young engineers club at the Warsop Lane school broke the existing record of 287mph set in 2011, when they paid a visit to the Rolls Royce testing track in Hucknall at the weekend.

The group took three cars built by the students - Redshift, Bloodhound and Insanity - and set a new world record of 478.1mph in Redshift.

Bloodhound only managed 448.9mph - not enough to beat the newly created record - but then Insanity took to the track.

The car managed 509.83mph on its first run, then recorded an astounding 556.28pmh on its second - creating an average speed on 533.1mph and smashing both the previous record and their own newly-set world record by a staggering 55mph.

Teacher Phil Worsley told Chad: “The weather was horrific early on Saturday morning but then eventually the sun came out and we were away.

“We’re actually going to get two certificates from the Guinness Book of Records because we broke our own new record and the whole school is absolutely buzzing.

“There’s even talk of us getting a banner to put out at the front of the school.

“We started with buying simple rocket kits, building them and firing them into the sky – then developed our ideas from there.

“We thought before we did the official runs that we were in with a good chance - we weren’t being cocky, but we had done lots of practice runs and knew how the cars were performing.”

Sherwood MP Mark Spencer went to the event to cheer the students on, and Lindsay Chapman from the National Physical Laboratory acted as official time-keeper.

The data will now be formally analysed by experts before the records are officially acknowledged, hopefully in about two week’s time.

PICTURED: Joseph Whitaker students with teacher Phil Worsley as they gear up for their world record attempt.