The Bendigo Youth Racing Team started their 2008 return in perfect fashion by winning the Wonthaggi Human Powered Grand Prix for the third year in a row on the weekend.
The weekend started off on a sour note after it was discovered in our pre race check over that the bottom bracket was extremely 'loose' and would be lucky to last 20 minutes under race conditions. So what we though was a close to perfect preparation turned into a 1:30am patch up job.
With this aside it was time for business as Qualifying quickly came around with all riders told to just cruise around to get used to the vehicle and the track, which in turn put us into 4th on the grid. The Girls team BYRG which was made up of two 16 year olds and an 18 year old along with year seven eights and nines from Flora Hill Secondary were also in a good position.
12 pm had arrived, and as the National flag dropped it was on. As the field crossed the line after completing the first lap it was our vehicle "The A Team" out in front with a handy lead nearly the entire distance of the start straight. This was a trend that continued for an hour with Callan off to a brilliant start which saw us nearly 2 laps up. It was time for Dave to jump in, and he wasted no time setting some quick times himself and further increasing our lead over The Grudge from Tenacious trikes which was sitting in second and in hot pursuit of the number 67 BYR vehicle. Next in was 16 year old Milky who did a solid hour in his first ever ride for BYR. All was running smoothly until late afternoon during Mickle and Chooka's stints when the windscreen started to fog, as visibility dropped so did lap times and the decision was made to cut our infamous 'ned kelly' slot in the windscreen. Next in was Joe who was also a first timer for BYR, he got off to a nervous start after he ended up on his roof as a result of a front wheel unlacing itself. After a slick wheel change from the pit crew Joe was back circulating again until he miss calculated his way through the hairpin and consequently ended up on his side.
While this was happening the girls vehicle BYRG continue to put together some good lap times and longs stints. With Tayla Evans putting in a strong 2 hour stint along with Kylie Shelly and Karlie. As the sun disappeared and "The A Team" moved on to their second rider cycle it was now time for some long night stints. Just as we got into a good rhythm trouble stuck as things got a bit out of hand on the back straight around the oval with the vehicle being smacked in the side with a Guitar followed by a brick and a tyre, Gav then pitted after a solid action filled stint. With this all cleaned up it was back to business until 6:45am when Mickle pulled into pits with a 13 lap lead only to have no front brakes. After an extended pit stop we were back on track but with a shortened lead of 8 laps and still no front brakes. After an hour and a half without front brakes the vehicle pitted and the pit crew were at the ready. They did an amazing job replacing the lever and cable in a touch over 5 minutes. As this was happening the Easy Tiger from Trisled managed to stay out of trouble and continued to post consistent lap times increasing the pressure on BYR. As the sun rose so did the lap times until Joe was making his way around the track when the rear wheel guard mangled itself in the rear wheel, causing some spectators to question whether we had a engine in the back. This resulted in another 6 minute pit stop to untangle the wheel and had us just over 2 laps ahead of the Easy Tiger. With the race coming to a close and a strong comeback buy the boys saw us break our distance record set last year with 1 hour to go. We were now out to a 8 lap lead after Trisled were involved in a number of incidents. The BYRG team with a younger average age easily accounted for the experienced St Margaret's team although there were in a different category. As 12pm arrived the The chequered flag was all ours after a gruelling stressfull yet rewarding 24 hours came to a close.
Fastest lap of the race 2:01.64
(Above)BYRG Changes Riders
(Below)Another Lap for "The A Team"
Woo! Yeah we Yonnie! Great job boys! Gavin. Did you get a great sound out of the guitar when it hit?
ReplyDelete