Thankfully, the rain fell mainly on the Friday and 88 teams were able to successfully compete in a record breaking edition of the Wonthaggi Human Powered Grand Prix, our new writer Katie Harris was there.
Round 2 of the 2012 Casey-Bass Coast HPV Series was held at Wonthaggi on Saturday 24th through to Sunday 25th of March. With forecasts of ‘traditional’ Wonthaggi weather of rain and high winds, it was known that riders and their crews were in for a tough and exciting weekend of racing. Teams began arriving on Friday afternoon and early evening for scrutineering and setting up camp and the weather began to settle in with fierce, wild winds and heavy rain.
Some teams woke up on Saturday morning to destroyed tents and were forced to find alternative accommodation. However, the remainder of the weekend saw overcast skies, with much cooler and pleasant conditions for the riders compared to scorching heat we were provided with at Casey Fields for Round One!
Here’s a neat video from Sam Toft, that captures some of the excitement:
And on the results…
In the Junior Secondary class, it was Maiden Gully Primary’s Ziptarwho have continued their winning streak well into 2012.
Middle Secondary proved a tough race, with previous winners Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies from Emerald District Education Centre (EDEC) testing their fate for another win. However, it was Curose College’s Unothat took out first place with 493 laps.The Senior Secondary Class ran a close race with some big names, including previous round and 2011 Energy Breakthrough champions ZAVANZ from EDEC against Squazzing from Bendigo Senior Secondary College. It was Bendigo Senior Secondary College though who took out first place ahead of the champions with 570 laps. Back at Casey Fields in May for the final round of the series, it will be an exciting one to watch in this class.
Open Secondary proved to be some tough competition with St Margaret’s School & Berwick Grammar School boys setting the bar high with their team Zeus. They’d previously taken out the class at round one and were first again here with 548 laps. This placed them 6th place overall, ahead from Frons Rota Coegi (Apparently, the name is latin for ‘Front Wheel Drive’) from Bendigo Senior Secondary College in second place. It’s been fully student engineered, but after 14 rollovers and – ironically – not a single problem with the front wheel, but many problems with the rear, it might be ‘a work in progress over the next few events,’ as team member Susan Hamilton told us.
Open Female entries were down on numbers compared to previous years. However, yet again SMS/BGS Ceto crossed the line with 500 laps and covering 700km in distance putting them in first place in the class.
Community teams made up a lot of this year’s field and didn’t disappoint. The team from TruBlu (pictured above) led from start to finish, opening up massive gap on the rest of the field to finish 33 laps (or over an hour in track time) ahead of their rivals Aurora Racing. TruBlu finished with 658 laps. covering 921km throughout the 24 hour endurance event and smashing the old track record by 47 laps. A massive effort and achievement by the boys at TruBlu! In third place was Team Phantom from Deakin Uni.
Veteran Community was a new class introduced this year where the ages of the riders in the teams had to average above 35. First place went to EDEC’s The Pace Makers who finished with 511 laps.
A massive congratulations must go to all the riders that rode throughout the event. Also thank you to the schools, parents, helpers, sponsors and friends who made the event possible.
Photo courtesy of Sophie Waldren of Waldren Photography
