The Bend 6-Hour
Saturday 20 May
Over the weekend, on Saturday 20 May, six of our Norwood International Pedal Prix Racing teams took to The Bend Motorsport Park for “The Bend 6-Hour”, which is the second round of the UniSA Australian HPV Super Series. Our teams joined over 150+ others who took to the grid for the 10:00am start time.
Our six teams included Team Enigma – Year 7 to 9 mixed, Team Protégé – Year 7 to 9 boys, Team Astro – Year 8 & 9 boys, Team Focus – Year 10 boys, Team Spurls – Year 8 to 12 girls, and Team XP8 – Year 11 & 12 boys. With a dumping of rain at 8:00am the track was slippery early, with riders needing to show increased caution, while demonstrating excellent skill and trike handling abilities. The weather and track conditions improved as the race continued, which saw laps and top speeds get faster on the new 2.8km circuit.
Our Results
Team Enigma was our first entry into the Middle School mixed category, they rode incredibly well to come home with third place in their category and 78th overall, completing 68 laps (190kms).
Team Protégé had a smooth race with the 8 boys pushing hard all day, they came home 10th in the Middle School Category, completing 69 laps (192.8km).
Team Astro was quick from the start despite the tricky conditions, their pace continued through the 6 hours allowing them to achieve a podium place (2nd) in the middle school category and 41st overall, completing 80 laps (224km) with a fastest lap of 3:46 (avg speed 45km/h) by Luca (yr 9).
Team Focus were clean all day (up until the last lap), with limited incidents allowing them a smooth race. The team made up of year 10s competing in the senior school category pushed hard to achieve 7th in Category and 34th overall with 82 laps (229.6km).
Spurls came home a fantastic 1st in Senior School all-female, continuing their championship winning form from 2022 (Also finishing as the 2nd fastest all female team overall). Willow (yr 8) set their fastest lap with a 4min 10 sec (avg 41km/h), while the team completed 73 laps (205km).
Team XP8 overcame a tough start with a go-pro getting caught in the driveline, to fight back and finish in 2nd place in the Senior School Category. They completed 95 laps (266km), with their fastest lap by Thomas (yr 11) a very speedy 3min 25 seconds (49.5km/h).
It was fantastic to see all the teams perform so well on and off track, this couldn’t have happened without a growing group supporting the Teams. A big thank you to all parents and our supporters, for taking on roles throughout the day including Track Marshalling, and Team Managers. With a special mention to Jo Hess and Sam (yr 11) (Spurls), Phil Duncan and Ben Cox (Focus), David Watts and Troy Flower (XP8), Kimberly O’Brien and Molly Sweeny (Enigma), Anna Lisa Taylor and Nicole Johnson (Protégé), and Matt Brinkley and Mick Hopton (Astro).
A shout out to Mitch Coles, Seb Cole and, Di and Paul at Train-2-Max who have also been pushing our students in the gym. We would also like to thank the ongoing support from local company Trump Trikes and Trump Trailers for their sponsorship and support.
Thank you and credit to Victoria Yurkova for capturing the event.
We now look forward to the Adelaide Race on 17 and 18 June where our two community teams will join us, with 8 teams racing over the two days.