BENDIGO Senior Secondary College has set the fastest lap ever seen at the Energy Breakthrough in Maryborough while driving their way to victory at the weekend.
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Earth Mover, the college's electric vehicle, won the 2022 Energy Breakthrough and the design and construction award as well as setting the fastest ever recorded lap at 1:39.460.
The college also saw success with their hybrid pedal-electric vehicle Rat Carpet which finished third outright in the EEV category.
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BSSC technology teacher and EB co-ordinator Daryl King said the event's return was welcome after last being held in 2019.
"We were pretty excited to get to the event," he said. "We sort of had a couple of new vehicles, one of which was developed over the last few years.
"The students had worked really hard on one vehicle in particular over the last few weeks after we crashed one before the event and had to get one of the new ones ready to go to replace it.
"Our electric vehicle took line honours and broke the the lap record as well which was great. We had lots of issues - as did everyone - with the weather."
The 24-hour energy efficient vehicle trial was called off for more than five hours with wind and storms sweeping through Maryborough.
"We bunkered down and just started again after the track was cleaned up," Mr King said. "From there on, we had a strong event and were able to put in some solid times."
BSSC students were also challenged when the vehicle charging station caught fire.
"That was another issue in the morning," Mr King said. "The station where everyone charges their batteries caught fire.
"It meant we had to be conservative and not use too much of our remaining batteries to ensure we got to end.
"We also broke down just before finish but were able to get going and cross the line.
Other schools that performed well at the EB was Girton Grammar who drove their vehicle XCeption to second pace the EEV category.
At a primary school level, Avoca Primary School's Avoca United came second in the human-powered vehicle trial ahead of Redback Junior from Carisbrook PS in third.
Lockwood Primary School's Turbo and Lockwood Rockets teams finished second and third in the HPV A! category for schools with less than 200 students.
Lockington Consolidated School finished third in the pushcart sprint.
Mr King said the return of the Energy Breakthrough event was a strong motivation for a lot of schools.
"It's just massive. It's hard to be motivated and be keen and want to do the hard yards if there is nothing at the end," he said. "Actually having a proper event get off the ground was phenomenal.
"It is absolutely crucial to the design program. A lot of school programs really suffered in the last three years and entries were down as a result.
"So getting the event off the ground again is a full credit to the org who make it happen."
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