Chris Crowe

Well our next profile report is all about our dedicated Pit Chief Crowey, who has been the go to man in the BYR pits since joining the team for the 2004 AIPP. As well as being a CAD Master who is responsible for drawing up almost every part of our 2009 Vehicle.

Crowey Hard at work for BYR.

1) Age?
A metric 23

2) Where do you live?
In Ormeau QLD, Home of the torrential downpour.

3) What is your job and where do you work?
I have just started work for PWR performance products in sunny QLD, as a draftsman/designer.
4) Number of Races both ridding and and in pits?
About 15 races all up, most from pit lane, making sure the wheels keep on turning, although I did ride in '06 and '09 at "thaggi".

5) As a draftsman how do your skills on Computer Aided Design (CAD) benefit BYR?
It can come in handy at times being able to draw up parts for the bike to give us an idea of whether they'll fit or not before we make them.

6) As Cheif Pit Crew of BYR you have been at alot of races over the years. What is your best memory/moment from HPV Racing?
There's been a lot of good memories from past events, Probably one of the highlights has been some of the really close clean fast racing we've had with a couple of teams over the years, when we've been battling lap for lap, that's always been good fun to track from pitlane.

7) What is the best thing about being involved in BYR?
The best thing about BYR for me is being apart of a team of highly motivated, passionate individuals who all strive for the same goal and achieve special things throughout the journey. Its the mateship as much as it is the building of the vehicles that really makes it worth putting a 150% in.

8) What is the Hardest part about BYR?
The hardest part at the moment is not being able to spend as much time working on the bike as i'd like too, damn the person who hasn't invented light speed travel and longer weekends. (enter fist waggle here)

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?Probably one of the worst crashes that I saw the after math from was probably in '06 when floata careered into channel 7 corner, apparently barrell rolling a couple of times. It would have been pretty impressive to see. (PS for any of the punters out there that happen to have any photos of that crash please email to chooka at jhendo3@hotmail.com , it would be good to actually see it.)

Watch this space for more updates in the coming weeks.

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2009 Vehicle Construction Update

Well we thought it was about time that we responded to the rumours going around about just what BYR is going to turn up to Murray Bridge with. Construction has been under way since February, as we work silently on our creation into the early hours of every Saturday morning out in shed, or as we like to call it the "Dream Factory". However for the time being our new Carbon Fibre weapon goes under the name of BY-Haven't though of a Name Yet. Here's the report put together by BYR Technical Director Daryl King.

Pictures: The raw composite materials and the cross member jig.

Construction of BYR’s new vehicle is now in full swing. Having conducted detailed testing and analysis on last year’s vehicle we have determined some key goals and objectives for our 2009 vehicle. The team is currently prototyping a number of key innovations that will hopefully deliver a vehicle that can be a strong contender at Murray Bridge.Modifications are to largely centred on the reliability and durability of the vehicles canopy that was a key weakness of the 2008 vehicle. A more effective demisting system has also been a top priority with significant effort going in to testing prototype systems. Increased breaking capacity has also been increased with newly designed hubs that will deliver 40% more breaking power.

Early construction work on the canopy has seen materials testing conducted on various combinations of canopy materials and techniques. Complementing the new materials and construction techniques will be small aerodynamic tweaks. The flow of air over and around the rear of the vehicle will change as well as the profile of the external roll bar.
Technical modifications are likely to result in improvements to the chassis, steering and drive system. Improvements will include the use of more composites in some areas of each system as well as the refinement of these systems in order to produce small efficiency gains.
The vehicle is likely to be significantly heavier than previous vehicles, but with more vehicles on the track than ever before the resulted strength is more than warranted. Stay tuned for further updates on the progress of BYR’s new vehicle.

Daryl King
Technical Director Bendigo Youth Racing onstruction

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