AHPVSS 2010

[aipp]

Thanks to our young "in the know" admin assistant AIPP now has an OFFICIAL fan page on Facebook as Australian International Pedal Prix.http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Australian-International-Pedal-Prix/354862632767?ref=ts
Check it out and feel free to upload photos, links etc. Any other pages you find described as AHPVSS or similar are NOT OURS and we would be much happier if they disappeared.....
By the way I am not the administrator of the fan page!!

[Khye]

Not going to wonthaggi this year has really made the pedal prix bug bite hard!
going over photos of me riding last year, sun shining, cruising past trikes has really made me get back into the swing of things

[Gareth]

Round 1 : 2 weeks out. who's going who's not?

I'm going but no racing for me........ not untill later on in the year..

[Khye]

first race since i started pedal prix that ive missed.
might be down to say hello, thats about it.

[The Duckmeister]

former "S-Chair"

I wonder how long it will take to shake that title?

It's now named "War Horse".

[My Name is Earl]

Goodluck today everyone. My predictions are Tru-Blu 1st, Blueshift 2nd and ExPats or Phantom fighting it out for 3rd . Happy racing!!!

[Tim]

Close Mick!

Well done to the TruBluCru again, despite some "challenging moments" they had enough in reserve to take it out.

For anyone looking for results, they were being posted all day on http://www.hpvresults.com.au and that site is now showing final results, fastest laps, and on the Overall Results you can click on the trike name to download a csv file of all the laps for each individual team. Enjoy!

Pics etc coming...

[Tim]

Pictures up at:
http://www.expatsracing.com/gallery/Round1-HPVSS-2010

[Pandymoose]

This design is full of win

[The Duckmeister]

2010 AIPP Australian HPV Super Series, Round One

Victoria Park, Adelaide, SA, 6-Hours, May 30, 2010.

145 vehicles, mostly from South Australia but with a handful of Victorians thrown in gathered under gloomy skies at the Grand Prix track on Adelaide's south-eastern corner for the opening round of the Aus. HPV super Series for 2010.

As the teams formed on the grid, "The Usual Suspects" from the Open Category headed the field, with the junior levels grouped behind. Defending Series champions - bearing the prestigious Number 1 for the year - TriSled headed the pack, alongside perennial local favourite TafeSA's "Blueshift". Ozone Racing were really the only other local contender, with Ballistic notably absent having chosen to direct their efforts to supplying vehicles for local schools & rest their own team efforts. Alongside TriSled, who had two vehicles entered, the Victorian assault consisted of my former squad Tru Blu, Team Phantom from Deakin Uni Student Asociation, ExPats (Gremlins Inc? ) and my team for this year, Strathdale Racing, based just outside Bendigo.

Every team has its Pet Freak, and for this round ours was in the form of Russell, one of the apparently infamous Nankerviseseses who are all blessed with freakish riding talents. Watch out at Round 2, there is supposedly going to be a whole team of them! So we put Russell in for the opening stint, and after a slow parade lap behind the course car, the flag was waved and the beasts... um.... I mean...... riders were released. Not surprisingly, Tru Blu bolted to an early lead, with TriSled's "Aquila" in hot pursuit. Both of these started lapping the tail-end primary kids by the end of the first lap....

Also in hot pursuit were Ozone's "Zero 3", Phantom's "Cool NaNas", Blueshift & making an impressive charge, Strathdale's "War Horse". After a few laps, Russell found his groove & was right with Tru Blu & Aquila. Making the most of some traffic baulking those two, Russ managed to sneak a clear line & take the lead, only to get blocked himself, virtually stopping on the very next lap. In the time it took to get back up to speed, not only had Aquila & Tru Blu got back in front, but also Phantom, Ozone & Blueshift.

And then the fogging started to rear its head again. Barely 30 minutes into the race, Russ was riding blind, so he pitted to have the windscreen "Ned Kellyed", cutting a hole in it to get some airflow onto the inside of it, & also give a clearer view through said hole. So that cost us a little bit more time, allowing ExPats' "Wet Whistle" & TriSled's trusty old "Son of Tiger" to slip in front as well. Another 30 minutes later, after just an hour of riding, Russell pitted, handing over to Yours Truly. Russ wasn't done though; a bit later on he also did a stint with Blueshift!

Anyway, back to the track. By the time I went out, the early drizzle had stopped and a dry line was starting to appear in the more exposed sectors of the track. That did not include the fast corner at the top end of the park, made even faster by the tailwind up the preceding straight. First lap out I was a little unprepared for just how much the Horse understeers & drifts on a wet track. I hit the turn in where I normally would have, but that was not quite early enough for this steed, and coupled with quite a bit of speed I found myself hurtling feet-first towards the "Lego-block" barriers. A quick grab of all brakes, with a bit more than usual on the back one to give the tail a bit of a flick had me back on a more acceptable line, albeit a bit slower than ideal. Lesson learned; turn in about 4 trike-lengths sooner to allow drifting room.

Helped by the lower numbers, the traffic was nowhere near the poo-inducing chaos of some SA races I've been to; quite an enjoyable change. Having learned from that first lap, I was soon nailing that corner with just the right amount of drift. I've got no idea what speed I was carrying through there 'cos the speedo had already died, but at times I was clawing back time that some of the others were opening out in the straights. I had a bit of a good moment about three laps before I pitted; Phantom passed me out of the hairpin at the bottom of the course, only to lose it on the next corner. I knew the second TriSled was trying to pass me into that corner. I managed to get enough front grip to hold a good line & not get caught up in it, while TriSled, on the outside of me had to back out & I managed to hold them off for another lap. All up I felt pretty good, given that my trike training is a long way short of what it used to be with Tru Blu. I stayed out for an hour, and at that stage, 1/3 distance we were sitting in 6th.

Ben took the helm after me, running well although he pitted after about 35 minutes complaining that the gears were all over the place - something that has been a bit of a bugbear for the Horse for a while, although some of us seem to be able to find the balance point & make it behave most of the time. After a bit of a tweak, we sent him back out to complete his otherwise uneventful hour.

Brenton took the 4th stint, starting well enough. But a run in with some traffic saw him take a rough line over the ripple strip, which shook one of his booster pads out of the seat. After that it was only by virtue of being cleated to the pedals that the li'l fella was still able to reach them at all, leading to a very uncomfortable ride for him. He pitted after only 30 minutes. BJ followed, and during his stint we had our only mechanical of the race. In true Murphy style, he exploded a tyre (it sounded like a gunshot echoing across the track!) just after the pit exit, which meant he had to do a whole lap on the flat. Close examination after the pitstop showed that we also had four broken spokes in that wheel. Although he had no further trouble BJ's general lack of endurance - although he had good pace - saw him in after just 30 minutes as well.

That brought us to the 2/3 distance mark, with one fresh rider left. Joel had a good solid run with no dramas, staying out for an hour. While he was out, Brenton & I discussed the plan for the final hour. He was disappointed with himself for only doing a short stint, but needed a bit more recovery time 'cos having to reach so much had been a bit of a strain. So we agreed to split the last hour, 'cos I felt that I couldn't do another hour stint anyway. But Joel caught us a little bit on the hop when he pitted & I wasn't quite ready, so the changeover was not as slick as it should have been. Not that it really mattered in the end.

My second stint got of to an interesting start; as I was taking the hairpin immediately after the exit of our pit lane, some delightful little sod decided to take a bite of my rear end, despite the fact that there was plenty of track room either side of me. So as I was trying to accelerate, I was getting pushed sideways. Fortunately at that time the track was dry so I could get the power to the ground & ride out of it, otherwise I would have been rolled. Not much else happened; 35 minutes later I pitted & handed over to Brenton, his seat pad suitably attached this time, & he brought us to the chequered flag, 8th overall.

At the pointy end, Tru Blu & TriSled's "Aquila" swapped the lead many times throughout the race, with Tru Blu eventually opening a two-lap margin to take another win, and acquiring a few battlescars in the process. Phantom settled into third fairly early on & held it for the majority of the race. Then we get to where a bit of shuffling went on. Blueshift eventually took 4th, ahead of ExPats. these guys kind of went under the radar, although not entirely without their Inevitable Gremlins, suffering steering damage after a meeting with the ripple strips, finishing 5th, a lap up on TriSled's second team. Ozone wound up 7th, with us in Strathdale taking 8th. This group were trading places for most of the day.

All up, we're happy with our result; we know we're not right up there with the front guys, but we're competitive enough.

Pics will follow soon.

[Tim]

Nice report Ducky, but after all the work I put into getting the results up on the web, you still got them wrong

Despite the "problems" Kel dragged us back from 7th (~2 laps down) to 5th (a lap clear of Tiger) at the end of the race. It might not seem like it, but we felt like we'd actually had a win at that point after losing 7 laps in our first ~20 minutes the absolute best we could finish was going to be 5th (and that was doubtful at best), so when we got there we had "won," and limited the damage as far as the series goes.

[The Duckmeister]

Fixed it.

[Khye]

lol- love the rollbar

[Gareth]

lol- love the rollbar

MMmmmmmmm i did not see somone at the event where were u my kind sir?

[Khye]

working champ.