Congratulations to our Human Powered Vehicle
team who did extremely well last week at the
RACV Energy Breakthrough at Maryborough.
Our team performed brilliantly and placed 3rd
overall in the Human Powered Vehicle section
for 2017. The Overtakers did very well in the
Design and Construction event and had an excellent
Presentation. They were seventh in the
14 hour race (out of 96 teams), crossing the
finishing line after having completed 353 laps or
390 kilometres. This was a fantastic effort considering
we had several rollovers in the first hour
and the track marshals held us up in the pits for
more than 20 minutes questioning the design of
the trike. Because our trike was so fast, we actually
employed an unusual strategy for the remaining
thirteen hours of the race; go fast in the
straights and cautious on the corners. In the end,
we were only eight laps away from winning the
race or about 15 minutes of pedalling. After our
incident packed first hour, the team showed true
determination to recover from 39 place to finish
seventh and in the final 6 hours of the race on
Saturday, we gained five laps on the leaders.
I would like to thank Samantha Smith for all of
the work she has done this year in supporting
the HPV program, it has been absolutely wonderful
to have as part of our team. Thanks also
to Virginia McKenzie for her assistance in all
aspects. Thanks of course to our parents who
were the caterers, the timers and recorders, the
cheer squad and the encouragement givers. I
know for many of you going to Maryborough was
a big sacrifice but I’m sure you will agree that it
was worthwhile. Thank you of course to each of
our 11 team members, you were absolutely awesome.
I think the most important thing about the
HPV event is to give it your best shot, if you can
walk away from the event saying you did your
best then that’s really all that matters. Great job
Overtakers.