2025 JP Racing

HPV Series - Sandown

I was extremely excited when I woke up to go to Sandown on a warm Saturday morning. Before long I was at Sandown and was met by all the amazing smells and people! There were an abundance of schools, food trucks and HPV’s! Not before long, I found our school’s pit area. Jells Park had five vehicles racing at Sandown, they were TNT, Shazzam, Phoenix, Raptor and Vanquish. All of the vehicles got ready to race and we all watched as they all zoomed off. 

Everyone was hyped to race and so was I! Vehicles kept passing everyone one by one, and while we were waiting to race, we were timing! I was the first person to time for my team, TNT and I was timing Chloe. Since I was the third person to ride it didn't take much long before I had to ride. Because I was riding twice I was incredibly nervous. I made sure I had gotten everything I needed, such as my water bottle with a straw in it, cleats, gloves and my helmet. I got in and zoomed off onto the track. 

While I was riding, I was wondering how many laps I had done and whether the big hill would be really hard to get up. Before the giant hill, I was building up speed and I saw that there was another small hill. After the small hill, there was the giant hill and it was very hard to ride up it. Once I had completed a lap I saw my friends cheering for me as I zoomed past. In a blink of an eye, I had finished riding and for the first session I did six laps. While in the second, I did three laps. I was extremely happy. It was all super tiring, but we pushed through and did amazing!

After I had done riding in the HPV, Mr Jenkins asked me and Ashton whether we wanted to wave the checkered flag at the end of the race. We were excited! Then we went to the area where we had to wave the flag and we got to ring the bell for when it was the last lap, and to wave the checkered flag for when the race was ending. It was really fun and we all got to have at least one turn waving the flag and ringing the bell. 

Overall it was an amazing and magical experience that nothing could compete with! After that all the vehicles were brought back to the pits. I was devastated that it had ended and I wished that it could have been longer! My favourite parts of this event were talking to my friends, racing, timing and being a flag bearer at the end of the race! I loved that we got the chance to do this astonishing race with all my friends and we got some good practice for Maryborough as well! If I could do this next year, I would do it without any hesitation!

Siyara P (6V)

I woke up at seven AM in the morning to get to the Sandown race track. 

It is the closest race track from our school, only being twelve minutes away. My family was on set up so we had to be there at seven thirty to help get the trikes prepared like checking the wheel guards and making sure the pedals work.While the teachers set up the TV’s to watch the vehicles.

After the setting up we went through a walk along the track to check where good spots to turn are that don't lead to crashing the vehicles. Soon after we had done that the race had started and most of us were watching the screen intently to see where Raptor, Vanquish and Shazzam were at the start. Vanquish was in the lead by a massive margin followed by Raptor then Shazzam. Then the second riders hopped in but I was riding third so I had to start getting ready.

Before I knew it I was in the vehicle. I was very nervous because there is a massive hill towards the end of the track but I kept telling myself “you can do it “ and I was right I could! In my first two laps I was getting insane times like 5m30s. On my third lap I was looking for my straw to try and get some water… and before I knew it I was heading into an unexpected sharp turn, Raptor went up on two wheels,I tried to recover but I ended up sliding on the side into a pool of water. I was in so much shock and fatigue I couldn’t breath for a couple of seconds.

The marshals got me and turned me right side up and I was able to keep going and finish the lap. I went straight into pits on the next lap to check if anything was wrong with the vehicle. It looked like there was the plastic bit of the window off but I was ok to keep racing. I had done three more laps getting times like 6m00s, 6m10s and 6m15s. On the second last corner of my last lap my legs felt like they were straining, and Raptor wouldn’t move, the vehicle just stopped so the marshals got me and took me off the track.

Me and the marshals waited for like twenty minutes until Mr Jenkins could get notified and get there. It turns out that there was a battery pack stuck in my back wheel stopping me from moving. So once we fixed that I went back into the trike and pedaled back to pits.

Once I got out of the vehicle I was a bit sad and fatigued so my mum took me to the food area and got me a slushy with ice cream on top it was called an Igloo. 

Moral of the story: look for your water straw when you are on a straight not about to turn, use your breaks when you are going around bends and HPV helps you to become fit, strong and resilient. 

Hudson R (6P)

Results organised by Daniel G (6V)