The rain stayed away all day for the 2017 Busselton Pedal Prix, creating perfect conditions for this year’s race with only the barest hint of a sea breeze and plenty of sunshine.
After six hours (and one minute), the Year 7 Legends team (Car number 327) had completed 146 laps of the 1km track, scraping into the top ten for Category 2 (middle school). It was an impressive effort for six debut riders of varying heights, enlisting plenty of help from cushions and seatbelt adjustments in pit lane. Nicholas Pavlinovich, Ethan Lauro, Ardi Kartana, Matthew Burgess, Denham Stewart and Zaylan Bower all handled the very long day with unwavering enthusiasm and support for both teams.
Car number 326 took on the six hour challenge with just three riders in Max Watson, Taj Colman and Josh Maisey, completing 156 laps to finish a respectable eighth place for Category 2 against some much larger and older teams.
Team manager Cassandra Lauro was delighted with the results, and with both teams’ ability to keep their human-powered vehicles upright. “Not one bingle,” she remarked. “Some near misses, a few tight squeezes and some spectacular corner drifts, but they all came out unscathed.”
Cassandra is grateful to the Rotary Club of Busselton-Geographe Bay for their support of the two College teams, and to the Redback Racing Team, who shared their expertise and maintenance skills to get the trikes up and running for the event.
Year 9 student Chelsea Rourke, who raced with Redback’s ‘Team Busso’ on Sunday, also offered plenty of support to the students during their training sessions before the race. Team Busso finished tenth in Category 3 (senior school) on Sunday, after completing 154 laps. Chelsea will travel with the team to Murray Bridge, South Australia next week to compete in the national series 24 Hour race.
Year 11 student Ross Rann competed in Category 4 (community) with the Redback Racing Team. While they were not so lucky to avoid a few bingles, some very fast lap times saw them finish in third place with an impressive 204 laps, just 29 laps behind the overall winners, EDEC HPV Team.
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