A snapshot of the 2008 RACV Energy Breakthrough

Well mostly through boredom, here is the 2008 RACV Energy Breakthrough in pictures. Excuse any biasness. Click on image to produce a larger version

Left:The Winning Team from Flora Hill.

Right: Rain made qualifying an interesting affair.

Run A Muk ran into a barrier mid way through qualifying, crushing both aluminium rollbars onto the rider. They were up until 3am fixing the damage, with the vehicle looking better then new come 1.30pm Saturday.
Highview's "Flying Scotsman 2" featured very innovative wheel spats that moved with the turning wheels. The external rollbar cost the team plenty of time off the track, trying to keep the thing stuck there with tape!
Highview's "Boris Monster" had the first rollover of the race, locking the rear and sliding onto it's roof on slippery turn 2. The team finished 2nd overall in HPV B2 to Flora Hill's "BRUM".

Left: Boris, Flying Scotsman 2, Old Bearded Mate and P-Knuckle. These teams made up the top 4 from lap 1.

Right: Highview seemed to be controlling the race in the first 3 hours, until the heavens opened one last time. The Bendigo teams faired much better in this period, coming out of the rain without any incidents.

The race featured a couple of red flags throughout. This picture (kind of) shows the bottleneck created by the barriers blowing across the road, blocking the entire track after "Dunny Corner". Several vehicles rolled in the chaos, with the red light on for several minutes.

Left: "Old Bearded Mate" came out of the night in great condition, leading BSSC's "P-Knuckle" by up to 18 laps at some stages.
Right: Meanwhile Highview had experienced more dramas, allowing Padua's "Boris" to finally take 3rd from the "Flying Scotsman 2" on Sunday morning.

Left: Weeroona's "Bullet Head" finished 3rd in HPV B1 whilst "Silver Bullet" finished 4th in the trial, along way off the pace. More impressive was how Team Pecos brought a vehicle across the line that barely looked like it had ran a race!
Right: Woodleigh's "Helter Skelter" showed enough speed to secure 2nd in the trial, yet suffered overall to finish 3rd in class. The quickest corflute fairing on the Maryborough grid.

With 30 minutes to go a lather of shaving cream was applied to the Old Bearded Mate.

Left: With 10 minutes to go the oversized Mach 3 razor entered the equation.

Right: Meanwhile Daryl King, BYR's design coordinator, former FH and BSSC rider and 2IC of Flora Hill's Pedal Prix program, starts to get a little emotional. Mike Turnbull, the main man, is mysteriously unavailable....

Literally under a hundred metres away from the checkered flag Daryl steps out onto the track so as to gift an Old Bearded Mate with a fine shave.

And so Flora Hill Secondary College wins the 2008 RACV Energy Breakthrough! One of the youngest teams to do it in the race's history. Well done for all your hard work throughout the year.

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Flora Hill Dominate at Energy Breakthrough

The 18th annual RACV Energy Breakthrough was held in Maryborough on the weekend in cool wet blustery conditions that were very similar to those experienced in Wonthaggi each year. However the rain did little to dampen the spirits of the competitors who all left the event with a big smile and lasting memories of a truely great event.

Race day arrived and the clouds rolled in and teams gave their vehicles a final check over before the 1:30 pm kickoff. The race was expected to be dominated by defending champions Highview College after they showed significant speed in friday night practice. But they buckled under the pressure and took a big step back in time to the days of barely making it to the finish. However this was a weekend to be dominated by Bendigo. Flora Hill had arrived at the event rated as a outside chance of overall victory after a very strong Murray Bridge campaign. But the team were confident that they had built a strong reliable vehicle and had the miles in their legs to pull off a remarkable victory, and they didnt dissapoint going on to take line honours by completing 654laps and 10 laps more than Bendigo Senior Secondary College and 53 laps ahead of pre race favorites Highview.

It was also an enjoyable weekend for member's of BYR who were all involved either as pit crew, track side entertainment or event management . We would like to congratulate Flora Hill on there rise to the top and look forward to continuing our relationship again next year. And also to BSSC who were the runners up and continue to give it their all year after year. Well done to everyone involved on a superb weekend despite the unkind weather.

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BYR help out at the RACV Energy Breakthrough

A whole host of Bendigo Youth Racing guys will be rolling up our sleeves and giving some back at the RACV Energy Breakthrough later this month in Maryborough, Vic.


We all cut our HPV racing teeth at the 'Breakthrough and feel as though we are now in positions to 'give something back' to the sport that has given us so much. (yup, that's pretty cliche, but I think that's how it is.)

Daryl King, is Team Manager / Co-Head Honcho now at Flora Hill SC, and will be inspiring a whole crew of young people on the journey.

Rowan will be helping out with the Try-athlon, Anson will be helping out with some judging and many others will be in support roles with a range of teams or being extra hands.

Me - well - I pretty much work on the 'Breakthrough all year round, putting in between 8 - 15 hrs a week. I do it because I love it and it's this time of the year when everyone starts getting excited about the 'great race'.

It's really different from the AIPP, it's the vibe, the school spirit, the team morale - it's a festival atmosphere that gives everyone HPV racer - BYR and beyond - a rush!

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