On Sunday 26 July UniSA Motorsport (the Formula SAE team) fielded a vehicle in the AIPP 9 hour pedal prix race at Victoria Park under the guise of Team UniSA. The deal was struck at the last minute, and 3 weeks ago a brand new Formula Tri-Sled racing trike was delivered to us ready for preparation. After a few late nights the trike was ready for a quick late night run down Seaview road and then trailered to the event (with the addition of some Borat stickers of course!).Everything was against us for the race, the biggest disadvantage was that we only had 4 riders, compared to 8 allowed by the rules - this would mean a lot of seat time for each of us! Whilst we were all reasonably fit, none of us had done any training for the event and apart from my quick late night runs none of us had actually ridden a HPV before the race.
Despite the fact that I was stuffed beyond belief, I had a blast. Sitting on the grid whilst the national anthem was played was memorable, as was the actual start itself. Perhaps the best memory of the race was speeding down the front straight at night, in spitting rain whilst following and passing a whole host of other HPV's, taillights flashing in the dark and water spray. Really just makes me want to go proper endurance racing...
In the end we started the race from 18th position on the grid, and 18th position in the open class. After 9 hours of racing we came 17th in class out of 23 (making up one whole place!) and placed 43rd overall. Not too bad considering our lack of experiance, and the fact that our HPV wasnt a terribly effective weapon in the open class. Cant wait for the 24hr in 2 months time!
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