Dave Maud

Well, we're slowly working our way through the team members.
It's now time for Dave Maud to give us an insight in to why his diet enjoys the training that is associated with being in Bendigo Youth Racing. As well as what he does for a living and his phobia of Dogs whilst out on the bike.

A Big Thumbs Up from Dave

1) Age?
18

2) Where do you live?
Kennington, Bendigo

3) What is your job and where do you work?
I'm a 2nd year apprentice plumber, working for the old man Phil Maud Plumbing. Not quite as a useful trade to the team as some of the other guys, but you never know Daryl could get a blocked toilet one day.

4) Number of Races?
Twice Bridge
Once Breakthrough
Thrice 'thaggi
And also been to some others helping out in the pits.

5) You started HPV racing at Flora Hill. What was it that made you choose the Pedal Vehicles Class?
Well, I guess I've always been into bikes, from being one of those rats down the local trails to travelling all over Australia racing the downhill mountain bike national series. And just having mates that also enjoy riding is good.

6)You have been involved in some pretty successful teams over the years.
What race/moment during a race stands out a favourite for you?
I'd say my favourite track is Wonthaggi, so any of our races at Wonthaggi would be up there. I can't really pick one moment from a race because every race is great. That’s why we do it.

7) What is the best thing about being involved in BYR?
One of the best thing’s would have to be the training, because with the amount of Macca’s I eat I can tell it's going to be all about the belly from whenever we decided to stop racing! I’m also here for all the fun that we have with such a close group of mates.

8) What is the Hardest part about BYR?
The hardest part would have to be the training, especially this time of year with all the boys working full time were lucky to get our gear on before the sun goes down. Lately is seems we’ve had an audience of kangaroos jumping on the road in front of us and even the occasional angry dog.

9) And finally BYR don't promote crashes but they are an unavoidable part of our sport. What is the most spectacular crash you have been involved in or seen?
In 06, I do recall having a bit of a serious crash at the top of the back straight at Murray Bridge, using a fairly slow orange primary school bike that popped out of nowhere as a ramp to jump the barriers. Luckily not resulting in any damage to either vehicle, just a fairly stern warning from the marshals.

Read more or comment...

Jarrod (Chooka) Henderson

Here we talk to BYR's Jarrod (Chooka) Henderson about his role as team President. And also about what he thinks is Good and Bad about being involved in BYR, as we work our way through all the team members in the build up to the AIPP at Murray Bridge in September .

"Accepting awards at the 06 AIPP"

1) Age?
21 in November

2) Where do you live?

Strathfieldsaye, host of the 2010 Compass Cup (After stealing it from SA).

3) What is your job and where do you work?

Nearly a 3rd year apprentice Carpenter. Working for Phillips Builders and Renovators.

4) Number of Races?
2 AIPP
3 RACV Energy Breakthroughs
4 Wonthaggi 24hrs

5) As the President of BYR you have to try and keep everything running smoothly to get the best out of the team, What’s good about this role?
The Best thing about being the President of BYR would have to be the satisfaction of actually getting to the races and seeing not just the vehicle going round but everything that is done behind the eyes of the team come together and run smoothly.

6) You started your involvement in HPV racing back in 2004 at Flora Hill Secondary, And with 9 24 hour races under the belt what has been the most rewarding race so far? The most rewarding race for me would have to be the 2005 RACV Energy Breakthrough in Bukkamalazir simply because it was my first race in a genuinely competitive vehicle. And also because we knocked of our biggest rivals of the time Berwick Secondary College by 40+ laps. But so far 09 is on track to being a great year fingers crossed.

7) What is the best thing about being involved in BYR?
The best thing about BYR would have to be the friendships that we have all made. But also coming together as a group of close mates who all have common interests and are all working for each other to get to races and give it our best shot as a team. And the after Parties are normally great fun to.

8) What is the Hardest part about BYR?
The hardest part for me would have to be the amount of time it takes to build a competitive vehicle, and also all the training in freezing conditions in the middle of winter. It all takes its toll after a while. But it’s very rewarding when all the hard work pays off.

9) And finally BYR don't promote crashes but they are an unavoidable part of our sport. What is the most spectacular crash you have been involved in or seen?
Well personally I have only been involved in a couple of roll over’s at Wonthaggi in the downpour of 2006. But one crash I imagine would have been very spectacular was when Big Dean Cowling made his way over the barriers at the chicane near the community pits and collided with the bridge which caused huge damage to BY-06.

Check back in the coming weeks for more team profiles.

Read more or comment...

Wonthaggi 24hr Race Report

Well we thought it would be better late then never to post a report following the Wonthaggi HPV Grand Prix held last month. So here it is enjoy!!!

A team 300 years old from all over the country
Arriving from various parts of the country to descend on Wonthaggi were our mismatch crew of riders for the Gary Marshall Electrical sponsored vehicle ‘Malcolm Douglas Pride’.

With a combined age of nearly 300 the 8 riders were given a chance to race a BYR vehicle (many racing for the first time). Each has contributed to BYR in an immeasurable way and quite frankly BYR wouldn’t have been anywhere near as successful without them, they included:

• 2 Flora Hill SC teachers,
• 3 fathers and
• 3 regular pitcrew.

So as the pitcrew donned the lycra it was also time for the regular riders to get their hands dirty in the pits.

The day before: Friday - 'Disinterested' Scrutineers

Friday started with an uneventful run through scrutineering followed by the innovation presentation with the judge clearly completely disinterested with what the team were saying and more keen to have a chat with his mates. After grabbing some dinner we headed back to the pits where the final preparations to the vehicle were completed with the hardest job being to get Crowey out of the pits and off to bed!

Race Day

Saturday started off with the riders going for ‘The most important lap you’ll do all weekend’ in the track walk.

After this practice came and went with all riders doing 2 or 3 laps of the track. From this we managed to slot into 25th on the grid for the start.

The Race Starts with Tristan in the Saddle

Tristan - as the team’s most experienced rider having ridden six 24hr races but none since 2006 - was the designated race starter. Tristan started well, and avoided his infamous stomach cramps, moving up from 25th into the top 10 with consistent lap times around the 2 20 mark before pitting after 40 minutes in the heat.

Taking over was Ash, a skin suit wearing PE teacher (Hello Ladies!) from FHSC, for his first race stint and he impressed as his lap times steadily dropped from the 2 40’s down to sub 2 30’s for his 45 minutes.

JD, the resident tekkie at FHSC, was up next and he quickly settled into a rhythm of 2 30’s for 40 minutes.

Mike, long-time pedal vehicles teacher at FHSC, took over and did a very solid hour of 2 20-2 25’s.

Jimmy Recard (aka boring old Paul), the team’s oldest member, then wound out his stint of 2 40’s for 40 minutes. Not a bad effort considering he didn’t know how to work the gears and spun away in top gear for the whole stint.

Stu Ridge then took over and impressed immediately staying around the 2 25 mark for nearly an hour. During this time the ‘Oldies’ had managed to pull themselves up into about 7th position and were now trying to chase down Bendigo Senior who were only 3-4 laps ahead of them. In the race for overall honours Ex-Pats were showing some very good speed and threatened a big upset as they had a pulled away from race favourites Tru-Blu by 3 laps.

Moving into the race

Back with the 'Oldies' and Stu had pitted and Craig was in and showed some good pace dropping into the low 2 30’s before pushing a bit too hard and putting the vehicle ‘on it’s lid’ for the only time in the race. Craig kept going and finished his 45 minutes with no further incident before handing over to Crowey. Crowey had put in some impressive miles in his legs in the lead up to the event, and as Daryl says ‘he has a bit of dog in him’ meaning he will push himself to the absolute limit, and it showed with some impressive lap times between 2 15 and 2 25 for his hour in the vehicle.

It was now back to the top of the list with Tristan and as temperatures started to cool stint lengths increased as all the oldies put in excess of an hour long second stint with Crowey’s 2nd stint almost cracking 2 hours on the demanding circuit. Again Jimmy Recard failed to work out the SRAM XO shifter which made the entire pit crew laugh at ‘the old coot who couldn’t work out the gears’.

Long sints move the oldies up

These long stints had seen the oldies cement their position of 7th and start to move closer to Bendigo Senior who now only held a two lap lead with 3 hours to go. Also overnight Expats had hit some troubles and had fallen off the pace as Tru-Blu now held an unassailable 10 lap lead. As Ash pitted to let Mike jump in the chase was on to catch Bendigo Senior and Mike went out and did a solid hour of 2 20 -2 25 lap times and at one point got to within 15 seconds of passing Bendigo Senior for 6th position before the fresh rider in the Bendigo Senior vehicle started to pull away. With only 2 hours to go it was decided that JD, Jimmy Recard and Crowey would each ride 40 minutes to complete the race.

So JD jumped in and quickly put out his fastest times of the race getting down to the low 2 20’s but it was to no avail as Bendigo Senior’s riders were now lapping in the 2 15’s and had rebuilt their 2 lap lead. Meanwhile in the pits Jimmy Recard was getting a long lecture on the proper functioning of a Sram shifter and when he jumped it was immediately noticed the difference gears make as his times dropped from 2 40’s to around 2 25. Towards the end of his stint it was noticed his last few lap times drifted out to the high 2 40’s and when he pitted it was noticed he had a slow leak in one of the front wheels and with that rectified Crowey went out to confirm 7th place he did it in style with sub 2 20 times for the remainder of the race.

The Oldies wrap - a good performance and a farewell to a great vehicle
A very good performance by the ‘Oldies’ and confirmation that the BYR chassis and aero package is still very quick when it stays in 1 piece. BYR will now say goodbye to this vehicle (debuted as BY-08 at Round 2 of the super series in Adelaide) as it has been sold to a community team from Ballarat. All the best to them and I’m sure they’ll put it to good use. Also congratulations to the crews from Tru-Blu for their race win and Ex-Pats for again showing if they can keep the vehicle together for 24 hours they will one day win one of these races.

Thank You

Also a big thanks to Flora Hill and Bendigo Senior for the combined pit and camping spaces which worked out well. Thank you to all those parents and support crew that kept us all fed in the kitchen and of course Noel Story the bus driver – it wouldn’t be a HPV race without you! BYR is now in full swing for Murray Bridge where we will debut our new vehicle which at this point in time has no name.

The main riding crew relaxing on Saturday arvo in Wonthaggi.
There will be no time for relaxing until Murray Bridge in September is done.

Thanks to Ex-Pats Racing for the pics. Written by Adam (Gav) King.

Read more or comment...

Letter from the AIPP

A while back you might have seen our post regarding a letter we sent to the Australian International Pedal Prix. (read our letter here)

Well, a while back we've received word from them, we thought we'd let you know what they said:

1. Track busy-ness
They've said: that they have received widespread positive from many teams that the 2008 edition was the 'best ever' and that the track incidents aren't caused by the race itself.
They would love to run two tracks simultaneously, but unfortunately don't have the capacity.

2. Marshals & their equipment
They've said: they have identified points requiring double marshals and that they provide vests for all points. Excellent.

3. Tail lights
They've Agreed and the regulations regarding the tail lights were modified for this year.

4. The Cycling Crit
They've said: it's a challenging issue they are continuing to work with.

Our Positive feedback regarding Paul Richards, their timing and scrutineering procedures was well received and we are glad that the AIPP team took the time to address our concerns, not dodge the questions and do so in a clear way.

Read more or comment...

Deven Pearce

Ok here we talk to BYR Treasurer Deven Pearce about his life outside of racing and also his experience's as a HPV racer. As well as his role as the money man within the team, and trying to keep track on where all our money is disappearing!!

1) Age? 20

2) Where do you live? Maiden Gully (Home of the VN Commodore for 4 more days)

3) What is your job and where do you work?
I'm a First year apprentice carpenter and i work for John Buckell Homes

4) Number of Races?
Raced in 7 and helped in the pits for 5 or 6

5) As the Treasurer of BYR you have to try and keep track of the money situation. What are the good and bad points of this role?
Its a very easy role compared to alot of the other people in the team. Since taking over the treasurer roll in 2007 Ive really been able to see how big a Murray Bridge campaign can be, the only down side is trying to keep track of where all the money is going and coming from.

6) You started your involvement in HPV racing in 2006 what was is it that made you want to join the Pedal Vehicles class at Bendigo Senior Secondary?
Well my brother had been pit crew for Bukk the year before and after going to watch and seeing the enjoyment everyone was having i wonted to be apart of it myself. I was lucky enough to race at both Murray Bridge and Maryborough that year in Grug.

7) What is the best thing about being involved in BYR?
The friendship and mates that you get along the way and seeing the quality of work that you can create through out the year and then being able to bring it all together for 24hours at the end which is the easiest part.

8) What is the Hardest part about BYR?
The amount of time that you have to put in to be competitive, whether it be in training or building. You don't really get much of a life outside of it, but its just a good thing we all love doing it so much

9) And finally BYR don't promote crashes but they are an unavoidable part of our sport.What is the most spectacular crash you have been involved in or seen?
The most mind blowing crash Ive seen would have been Luke Preston (Floata) in BY06 at Murray Bridge. He came flying down into channel 7 and quickly tried to duck around a slower vehicle, he ended up doing 2 barrel rolls i think and landing on his wheels which buckled them completely. Its not the best crash but the worst injury I've had was at Murray Bridge 06 in Grug, where i completely cramped up in the bike and couldn't move and had to get ripped out into pits, but as i got pulled out of the vehicle they pulled me towards the back of the bike onto the sharp Kevlar edge, which left a nice graze up my back as you can see (pictured below).

Meet the rest of our team here

Read more or comment...

Adam (Gavin King)

Above: Gav on the ride to Humevale.

So with a great Wonthaggi event out of the way, we switch our focus back onto the Australian International Pedal Prix. And the next team profile is of Adam (Gavin) King.

1) Age? 20

2) Where do you live? Brunswick (home to underbelly) - where a few of the underworld shootings took place - which is nice.
3) What is your job and where do you work/Study?
I am a 3rd year Civil Engineering student at Melbourne University and also work part-time as a draftsmen at an engineering company in between uni commitments.

4) Number of Races?
8- (3 Wonthaggi's, 3 Energy Breakthroughs and 2 AIPP's). I've never raced a 6-hour - maybe next year.

5) As a Civil Engineering Student how do the skills you are learning benefit BYR? Well... learning about civil engineering you deal a fair bit with material properties and design work with CAD which comes in handy at times.

6) As a HPV student at both Flora Hill and Bendigo Senior Secondary you have been a part of some successful teams. What is your best memory/moment from HPV Racing? My best memory would have to be winning the Energy Breakthrough for the first time in 2005 with Bukkamalazir. Coming into the event we thought we could be competitive with the top teams but to be so dominant over the rest of the field and break Sav's record was unbelievable. The Energy Breakthrough has always been the pinnacle for school teams in Australia. You just can't beat the excitement of riding down the front straight in the last couple of hours. Other great moments would have to be watching BYR win in 2003 at AIPP and watching Flora Hill win last years EB.

7) What is the best thing about being involved in BYR?
It would have to be the mate ship that comes from being involved with the team. Just being able to build something with your mates that you wouldn't normally be able to do is pretty special.

8) What is the Hardest part about BYR?
Travelling from Melbourne to Bendigo every couple of weeks does make it hard but it is definitely worth it. Otherwise it would just be trying to explain to people what it is that we actually build.

9) And Finally BYR don't promote crashes but they are an unavoidable part of our sport. What is the most spectacular crash you have been involved in or seen?
It would have to be 2 of Rowan's crashes. One was at the 2005 AIPP in Qualifying when he thought that he could go round Channel 7 corner at 60+ km/hr and had barely entered the corner before he was on his lid and sliding into the hay bales. The other was when we took BY-06 out after the race down some steep hills and gravel roads and Rowan decided to show us the art of HPV drifting on a gravel corner needless to say it ended badly.

Next cab off the rank will be BYR Treasurer Deven Pearce.
Read more team profiles

Read more or comment...