Sunday:
CENTRAL Victorian teams were among the leaders in their classes at Saturday's Bendigo HPV/EEV Grand Prix.
Bendigo teams took out the podium positions in this year's junior racing, with Maiden Gully Primary School represented in both third and first place.
Team 'Envy' took out top honours with 207 laps, while 'Miss Zippy' was third with 175 laps.
Golden Square Primary School's team 'Ghost' got second place, with 188 laps.
Bendigo Senior Secondary College team 'Go Whitey' secured pole position in Hybrid 1 racing, with 284 laps.
Girton Grammar School team 'Xception' led SPS class racing with 292 laps.
Weeroona College Bendigo's 'Whippy' came second to Horsham's Holy Trinity Lutheran College in the Senior category, with 231 laps.
The two colleges also dominated the leader board in the Middle class, with Weeroona College team 'Boomerang' taking out third with 220 laps.
Victory Christian College's 'Outta Nowhere' was on the podium in the Open category, with 241 laps.
The 'Bolterz' from Lightning Reef Primary School came third in the Junior Open.
Pipsqueak Racing teams dominated in the Junior Open and Middle Female classes, and were on the leader board in the Senior category.
'Trump Trikes', 'Toothless' and 'Unhinged' were the top three teams in the Community class.
Wattle Racing's 'She's the man' led the Community female category.
'Trump Elite', 'Trump Trikes 2' and 'Sr' were the leaders in the Community Mixed class.
For full results, click here.
Saturday:
THE sunny day might have given way to a night sky, but excitement levels remain high at the Bendigo Human Powered Vehicle and Energy Efficient Vehicle Grand Prix.
Teams have set a blistering pace, with a professional community racing team clocking a new lap record of 1:19.
More than 70 teams are involved in this year's event, from primary schools through to masters.
They came from as far away as South Australia to be part of the action.
"It's certainly not for the faint-hearted," event co-founder Lynden Francis-Wright said.
From the archives: Racers take to Bendigo streets for 2018 HPV/EEV Grand Prix
The event won't be over until 10pm, giving participants nine hours of racing with experience in both day and night conditions.
Ms Francis-Wright said the course itself was also quite challenging.
It's the loop from Deborah Street through to Thistle and Abel Streets in Golden Square.
There could be up to 2000 people on site at any one point in time, Ms Francis-Wright said.
"Within the teams of junior HPVs there can be up to 10 riders. All the other teams will have eight," she said.
Teams also have pit crews.
About 90 per cent of the teams involved this year are affiliated with schools.
Professional community racing teams account for 14 of the competing sides.
Ms Francis-Wright said the Bendigo Grand Prix was considered to be an informal training event for November's Energy Breakthrough in Maryborough.
This year's event features additional infrastructure in line with new counter-terrorism public event regulations.
It's also the first year the Bendigo HPV/EEV Grand Prix has been separate from the Victorian HPV series.
"We feel it is really important to keep EEV in our race," Ms Francis-Wright said.
While the HPV teams strive to lap the circuit in their recumbent trikes as many times as possible within the nine-hour race period, the objective for EEV racers is different.
Ms Francis-Wright said the EEVs had an allocated amount of fuel.
Their challenge was to complete the maximum laps with that fuel allocation.
"It's all about energy efficiency," she said.
Ms Francis-Wright said racing opportunities were limited for the hybrid vehicles especially.
"We wanted to make sure we could keep including these teams," Ms Francis-Wright said.
Race results can be found online here.
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Emma D'Agostino
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
