AIPP 2008!

[dean]

Cheers for the congrats guys! It was probably one of our most memorable wins, leading at the start, losing a few places, crashing, then fighting back from fourth to take first, then fall behind by 48sec to Ballistic, then start to reel them back, then they crash and we take the flag. It was a bit of a nail biter at the end that's for sure! haha It was a good race, pretty hectic though, there was a fair bit of unnecessary direction-changing from the kiddies!! But we managed through. GreyShift went ok but the car got pretty battered this time unfortunately, each crash/rollover was fairly substantial so there's some damage done. Tim Rochford was a first time BlueShift rider, and contributed extremely well. We only did five changes, each rider doing about 1hr 10min - 1hr 15min. Poor old Mike didn't even get a ride!! He was the sixth rider but each guy rode a good long stint, which left no time for him, but he wasn't fussed coz he hasn't done much training yet anyway so thats all good. It was a quick race, beating the previous record by three(!!) laps. Anyone know the length of the track? I think it's 1.6km isn't it? If thats right, that works out to 235.2kms at an average of 39.2km/h. Very fast for a track like that.

You have to average about 44km/h at MB, incl pit changes, to get anywhere near the 1000km mark. It could happen.

Barossa - you guys had some really good pace, just mech issues was it?
tsco - bet ya can't wait to roll out the newbie, should be a quick machine
Ballistic - now riding at the pace that a SASI team should be but unlucky to have ur crash at a critical time, we just had our series of unlucky events earlier in the race. Should be a stronf force at MB though, the SASI guys will have mega endurance
BYR - always tough comp and it was finally nice to be in a position where we could seriously race you guys, unlike MB 06 where we were way slower and had some crashes and issues, and MB04 was only our first competitive year and weren't yet up to speed.
ExPats - looked pretty clean this time, fast too

Thanks goes to the pedal prix website for posting results the following day! Much better than 2 weeks.

Cya at MB everyone!

ps ill update the site sometime soon.

[Tim]

Nice to see the race results up so quickly this time... puts the pressure on for race reports and photos though!

[The Duckmeister]

ExPats - looked pretty clean this time....

You obviously didn't see their second last rider after he got out!

[Tim]

You obviously didn't see their second last rider after he got out!

Happy snaps to be updated first

Apparently Steele refused to get in the trike when Ty got out, after the boys cleaned most of the 6 banana powered spew out of the trike there was still a lump right where his bum had to go and there was just no way in hell he was sitting in someone else's chunder!

[Jenna]

haha yeah, Tim.... does this mean you're going to write the race report sooner this time? *im just teasing*
We (heathfield) did most of the race with three riders... after our fastest rider (ex sagero) did his back in! and a few VERY buckled wheels!!

[Tim]

@Dean, congrats again on being the ones at the front when the flag finally dropped, it really was there for anyone to take in the last hour or so.

@Jenna, you obviously haven't been checking the site, I'm half a step ahead of you girl BTW, helluva effort with only 3 riders + problems!

[Jenna]

I so checked the site..... you've written about PRE-race not the actual race and i had to keep up the on-going joke too lol
Seeya at maroondah!!!

[Justin]

Hey congrats on a great race everyone, the whole race ran super smooth with relatively clean racing all day.
Again, Flora really showed us how strong a high school team can be..... both with the design of their trike and fitness of riders. We really have to step up at MB this year, both with trike aero and fitness.
We had a descent race, but nothing special.
I also really think they need to get rid of that ridiculous parade lap, and grid positions done by alphabetical order.....its an easy solution for the AIPP to just chuck us in lettered order, i found myself boxed in with 5 cars lined up infront of me at the start who were originally meant to be miles behind on the grid... took me numerous laps to catch the other cat 3 teams. (apart from flora)

[Finno]

The parade lap and starting procedure is ridiculously long. They could have the national anthem while we're still on the grid doing final prep checks. Keep the parade lap, but have the course car just pull off to the side of the track and ensure the leading cars on the front row adhere to a speed limit of 10kph until they cross the line. If it's good enough for LeMans racing, it's good enough for us .

[icbu]

Congratulations to everyone, going to be an interesting AIPP!

http://www.phantomhpv.com/

Updated.

P.S. Well done Dean, 1.54km I believe.

[Tim]

Just read the race report Ian, Ballistic's crash at the end wasn't the result of trying to enter pit lane, at least not intentionally!

We were marshalling that pit entry and saw it all unfold, didn't quite get the camera up in time to catch the whole thing, but did get the end results.

Ballistic were in DAS's slippy coming up the extreme edge of the track near the pit entry. There was a small yellow primary trike that was also directly on that same line, but didn't appear to be coming into the pits either - just in the wrong place on the track I think. We could almost see the DAS rider make a quick decision as to which side he could get past on, and with a sharp yank on the steering went towards the middle of the track. With almost no time to react, Ballistic decided to go right of the yellow trike instead right at the pit entry point. Too late he realised that he'd made a mistake and clipped the yellow trike sending him sideways into the pit lane barrier. It crossed my mind at one point that the DAS rider may have almost lined him up for it to get him out of his slippy. Regardless of the why's, it was just another of the "that's racing moments" that happens. Whilst it would be easy to blame the kid in the yellow trike for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the Ballistic rider also made a couple of bad decisions in the process as well - IMHO.

[Khye]

what raced reporT? is urs up? i checked it 10 mins ago!

[Tim]

Khye, icbu linked to the Phantom report, I'm working at the moment, just not on the race report. Bit of a back log of work.

[Khye]

ah read that, i thought you were talking about another one.

Duckymeister worte a very good one from his perspective, il lwait for him to copy it over tho.

[The Duckmeister]

At Khye's suggestion, as posted by Yours Truly on Bicycle Victoria Forum. Forgive some of what on here would seem unnecessary detail, but I aimed this at "normal" cyclists.

Australian HPV Super Series 2008
Round 2, Victoria Park, Adelaide, July 27th 2008 - 6 Hours

Race Report.

Approximately 170 HPVs fronted up to the Victoria Park circuit (part of the old Grand Prix track), as always mostly entered in the school-based categories. So as far as the Open category was concerned, it was shaping up to be an eight-horse race, with everybody else obstacles to try not to get tangled in.

For this race, I was on loan to the Deakin University Student Association (DUSA)-based GT-6; after a close-fought battle for second place in Round 1, the team were confident of putting on another good race, although a couple of later entrants, and some revised vehicles, meant that results were far from a foregone conclusion. Fronting the "Victorian Assault" were Bendigo Youth Racing (BYR), ExPats Racing and us, facing off against the South Australian squad of Cycling SA's 'Ballistic', TAFE SA's 'Blueshift' and 'Greyshift', Team Bluebird with 'Gary', DAS Racing and Barossa Boys with 'Fa(s)t Girl' (Sorry Nauts, but you know everyone calls it 'Fat Girl!)

Starting from the second row of the grid, GT-6 was well placed to avoid the inevitable carnage at the first hairpin corner on the damp track, although Jarrod set the tone for us, wrestling with lack of traction out of the corner, which hampered setting up for the uphill run that followed, before the next off-camber hairpin. From the drop of the flag, 'Blueshift', 'Ballistic' & BYR showed they meant business, running nose to tail, a formation they held for virtually the whole race. ExPats displayed their famous lack of reliability, losing a lap at the start as they battled to fix a bent chainguide. That fixed, they went on to display their equally famous speed as they scythed through the field in the attempt to recover the lost lap.

About 40 minutes in, it was time for our first pit stop. "J-Rod" was out, Ian was in, and it was business as usual for another 40 minutes or so. Finding, and exceeding, the limits on the wet track, he spun it on the hairpin, fortunately avoiding being hit, or hitting anything, and it was the only blip in an otherwise beautifully consistent run. The next two riders, Tim & Ronnie, continued the pattern, running smoothly, apart from one spin each, not helped by a passing shower which deposited a fresh coat of water to the track.

Finally, about 2 1/2 hours into the race, it was my turn. I am always a little nervy before my first stint, more so on a new track. Even more so when said track is wet. And even more so when I'm in a vehicle I've only had a short test run in. So you could imagine that I was almost crapping myself at this point! I had walked the track earlier, and watched the first stint, so I had a reasonable idea of what lines worked, but the final test was to get out there and feel it.

First, a small diversion; Most HPVs have the two front brakes linked to one lever, with the rear on the other. For some reason, which was never made clear, GT-6 has its right front and rear brakes on the right lever, with the left front on the left lever. The bar-end gear shifter is on the left handlebar, and the button for the horn on top of the right one.

Now, the laps. Exiting the pit lane (Yes the actual racing one!), the track sweeps into a left-right chicane, which dips slightly on the way through. On a flying lap it's taken well in excess of 50km/h. And then comes That Corner. First time through, I nearly stuffed into the hay bales. You start to climb out of the dip just before the corner, so it looks harmless enough, because it's cambered inwards. What you can't see is the traffic island on the exit line, so you swing wide, the camber rolls off and the vehicle unloads the tyres. I came in too hot, trying to shift down a few gears, on the horn at the slow kids in front and trying to juggle brake balance all at the same time had the vehicle slithering all over the place. Just managed to not hit anything, but lost the momentum I needed to attack the hill, so that was a painful grind up to the next hairpin. A piece of kerbing extends past the apex, 'cos the Grand Prix track comes in from the opposite direction, and the corner for them is a left sweeper. So a wide line is in order to clear this speed hump, and then try to hook in so as not to fall off the outside of the off-cambered track. A left kink then leads into the back straight, a right sweep and then a fairly wide hairpin to bring us back out to the main straight, for a circuit length of 1.5km. I did this for just over an hour, in the process saving us a pitstop, and allowing our sprinter-type riders a bit more recovery time before their second stints. I probably could have gone a few laps longer, but I got balked at That Corner a couple of times, which killed the run up the hill. I could feel the legs starting to go off, so gave a couple of laps notice to the guys before pulling in & handing over to Ross. My riding for the day was done.

The track was finally drying up a bit, and we had no more donuts. After Ross did his ride, Ian, Tim & Ronnie each did a short second stint to bring us home in a solid 5th place. ExPats eventually found some reliability and clawed their way back onto the lead lap to claim 4th. A late tyre change cost BYR a bit of time, putting them in 3rd, top Victorians. Ballistic suffered a crash within the last 15 minutes, which put them back to second, leaving Blueshift to take the chequered flag, adding to their Round 1 win. I am yet to see how things panned out behind us, but I think we had a bit of a gap up our sleeve, while Greyshift, Gary and DAS racing fought out a fairly tight tussle, with Fat Girl further back.