A DRAMATIC closing at the Energy Breakthrough in Maryborough allowed Girton Grammar School to claim victory and set a new record at the weekend.
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Girton won the single-power source category by one lap after a broken throttle cable nearly stalled their chance.
Driver Connor McCaig rolled into the pits when the cable broke only to be told he had to hold the cable in place to finish the last laps of the race.
“I was waiting for second place to catch up to do a parade lap and had slowed down. When I saw them coming, I accelerated and the throttle cable snapped,” he said.
“I rolled until I came to a stop in the pits. Then I had to hold the cable together. It was fairly crammed in the trike, I had to bend my arm in a way it wasn’t supposed to.”
“The last lap was about seven minutes long, my normal pace was about one minute, 50 seconds.”
Connor’s last lap was the difference with Girton’s Xception team finishing on 651 laps, one lap ahead of Rode Rage’s eMatrix hybrid vehicle.
“We won by about 700 metres, I was over the moon and couldn’t utter a word. I was so gobsmacked we’d made it,” Connor said.
On the side of the track driver Breana Merrin and the rest of her teammates were waiting at the finish line for Connor when the drama unfolded.
“It was extremely stressful. We heard (organisers announce) that Xception had a problem with their throttle and were out of race,” she said.
“We started running around the track to find him. We didn’t really know what was going on (with the car) and could only sit back watching.
“When we realised, even after all that, we had won we were proud and relieved. Everyone was smiling and happy because we were really gunning for it.”
The throttle drama followed on from a series of crashes that hindered the Girton team during the race.
In the last 12 months the team developed their own solar-powered charging station and battery storage facility to recharge the battery packs on their vehicle, preventing the need to power batteries from trackside charging stations that use mains power.
They also reduced the weight in their car.
Breana was the only driver from the EEV team not to crash during the 24-hour race.
“We each did two-hour driving stints. They were pretty long and, racing around two hours straight, it's mentally draining,” she said.
“I averaged 10 seconds a lap slower than the boys but I was being cautious. Every single person before me had crashed and I wanted to make sure I didn’t put (the vehicle) on its head.
“You spend a lot of time in the pits if you crash. It takes at least 10 minutes to get the car in, wait for the marshal to assess any damage and then, if something is broken, you have to take time to fix it.
“So while other cars we were racing might have been catching me up catching, it is better than (time in the pits). A good stint like that helps set the team up (for a good performance).”
Girton’s EEV performance resulted in its eighth consecutive title in that category. They also became the first team to drive more than 1000km in the 24-hour race.
“Last year we set the target for 1000km but they calculated the course wrong so we were about four kilometres off it, which is three laps,” Connor said.
“We were really annoyed to be so close but so far. This year though we said ‘that's the thing we want’, win or lose we wanted that 1000km. We finished with 1028km and I am really happy we got it.”
Other Bendigo schools also had success at the Energy Breakthrough.
In the Try-athlon, where teams take on an eight-hour endurance trial, time trials and an obstacle rally, St Therese’s Primary School finished second in the primary school category by a margin of 0.3 points. They also had teams finish in fourth and sixth positions.
Bendigo Senior Secondary College finished third in the EEV hybrid 1 (pedal power plus one other power source) category and the human-powered vehicle all female team category. They also secured second in the HPV open category.
White Hills Primary School’s human-powered vehicle team Ecorush has come from third position overnight to win the primary schools race but failed to pick up a top three finish overall.
Log on to www.eb.org.au for the full results including the secondary schools event.
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