2009 AIPP Race Report (Pt2) - Friday Qualifying

Friday (Qualifying)
Our sunny Friday began at 8am as we made our way down to the track for breakfast at the food tent. In a first for BYR, we all brought our road bikes and went for a 30km roll to get the blood pumping and also to ride out a few pre-race jitters put of the legs.

The rest of the day was very laid back with very little happening until Qualifying at 5pm. We headed over to the main straight for a brief Design & Construction assessment with a one judge eating a hot dog. Honestly, it was pretty hard to sell 12 months of work in about 2 minutes and stress that we actually do build everything ourselves. We didn’t win D&C – DAS Racing did.

Daryl later made his way down to Pondie straight to judge some of the junior categories for the afternoon too.

Qualifying: 5pm – 7pm
So the time had come to put our new creation BY-09 out on the track where it would spend most of the weekend. After a last minute roller change which took up the first 20 minutes of the session, qualifying was underway and we worked through our rider line up. All of our riders were under the instructions to just go out there, cruise around and get used to the vehicle under race conditions. We do this with one out lap, one flying lap, then one in lap (or three times past the pits)

With plenty of time left in the session, Daryl started to turn up the heat and Callan went for a second ride to put in a fast lap to try and put us into the Top 15 Shootout (Link). Cal managed to do a speedy 2:27 to top the time sheets for the session.
It was very satisfying to know that we had built a fast vehicle that was suited to the track.

It was decided at this time that our race strategy was to win.

"No matter how much testing you do, there’s something different about having the trike in race trim on the track at Murray Bridge with everyone else. Only then can you feel the bumps up and down the back straight, the sound of your trike heading through the dipper and how quickly the corners come up on you." – Nigel Preston

After a hearty bowl of bolognaise, it was back to our room for an early night to rest up with a massive day to follow.

The story continues...
Because there is simply so much to tell you about the weekend, we’ve broken it up into 3 parts:
- The journey there (Getting there and getting bogged),
- Friday (Qualifying),
- Race day, racing through the night and victory