2019 Maryborough Energy Breakthrough

The Girton Racing Team (GRT) has achieved incredible results at the 2019 Maryborough Energy Breakthrough event.

Thirty-eight students, five staff members and many parent helpers, headed to Maryborough early on Friday morning on 22nd November and took part in the unique program that sees all teams compete across the weekend in three areas of assessment: Design and Construction, Display and Presentation and Trials.

For the eighth consecutive year, the Girton Racing Team (Team Xception) won the Single Power Source, Electric, category, and for the third consecutive year the team won the overall event. Their vehicle featured a new telemetry onboard computer system designed by Old Girtonian, Mr Lucas Kirby. The system monitors battery output, usage and driver/rider efficiency. This exciting technological development is looking to be installed in all vehicles from all schools competing in the Single Power Source race categories.

Girton Racing Team results were as follows:

Single Power Source, Electric, Team Xception (Year 10 and Year 12, made up of long-serving members of the GRT, including single female Grace Morrall)

First Place – Design and Construction

First Place – 24 hr category win

First Place – Overall event win (second year running)

Hybrid, Pedal / Electric, Team In-X.S (New trike and first-time entry in this class – Year 9, 10 and 11 students, mix of three boys and three girls)

First Place – Design and Construction

Fourth Place – Overall event

HPV Secondary, Mixed, Team Intimidate (Year 7, 8 and 9 students, some in their first 24hr event)

Ninth place – 24 hr race (A wonderful effort from this very young and inexperienced team, who placed in the top 10 of 25 entrants in their category.)

HPV Secondary, Female, Team In-Perfection (Year 7, 9, 10 and 11 female students)

Sixth place – 24 hr race (An excellent result from a quality field of 13 teams)

HPV Secondary, Open, Team In-Sync (All boys team from Year 8, 9 and 10 competing against much older students)

Ninth place – 24 hr race (An incredible effort to make it into the Top 10 against very strong teams of much older riders from 23 teams)

Special thanks to:

Year 7 and 8 boys assigned duties in the pits, with catering and running errands.
The wonderful GRT families for their support and enthusiasm for this, and many other events.
Mr Dave Stone, whose family took part in their final GRT event at Maryborough. Mr Stone was a founding member of the GRT and we are immensely thankful for his support over many years.
Mr Robin Kirby, Mr Lucas Kirby and Mr Andrew Turpie were all instrumental to success on the day and to the ongoing development and maintenance of the GRT.

Please click on the images above to view the gallery

GRT Report

This year has been full throttle for the Girton Racing Team (GRT). Teams have competed in the Victorian and South Australian Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) series, the Bendigo Grand Prix and the Shell Eco Marathon team represented Australia at the Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur.

The HPV teams travelled interstate to South Australia for a total of three races over three big weekends. The first two races held in Terms 2 and 3 took place on a relatively easy course held at Victoria Park in Adelaide. The teams had lots of fun racing fast and furious on the former Formula 1 racetrack over the six-hour races.

These races were completed as qualification rounds for the biggest race in Australia, the Murray Bridge 24-hour. The Murray Bridge event held at the beginning of the September holidays was a gruelling but enjoyable event. The all-female and all-male teams, and our community team made up of Staff, parents and older students did exceptionally well to keep their trikes circulating the track for the full 24-hour period. Murray Bridge was once again a huge success for the Girton Racing Team with the boys finishing 10th in category and the girls 4th against the strong South Australian field.

Slightly closer to home the Victorian HPV Super Series involved three student vehicles and one adult trike competing in the shortened 2019 series of three races. After race one was cancelled due to extreme heat all four teams lined up for series race two at the new track location, a driver training facility in Kilsyth. All four teams faired very well at this event, on the tight, winding, up and down and most enjoyable track. The third race in the series had teams competing on the Criterium Track at the Casey Fields complex. This event was a brand new 12-hour race, which was conducted in cold and very wet conditions. All four teams raced brilliantly in the very trying conditions, especially our most senior secondary team who crossed the line in second place. The final race of the series had all four teams back at the Casey Fields Criterium Track for a 6-hour event. Despite racing very well all day, and across the entire series this year we did not factor in the series trophies. All racers, however, did themselves and the GRT very proud for their efforts over the course of the year.

The independent race event the Bendigo Grand Prix 9-hour, raced on a street circuit around the Central Deborah industrial area posed challenges due to the cold and wet weather. At this event the GRT raced our Energy Efficient Vehicle (EEV), Xception. Xception is single power source, electric vehicle. This vehicle and its team have an impeccable record of race wins, however, last year the vehicle suffered computer related issues, forcing it out of the race. Nothing stood in the way of our EEV in 2019, taking out the race win. This vehicle’s next race is the season finale event, the Maryborough Energy Breakthrough where the Xception team will be aiming for its eighth straight race win.

The Shell Eco Marathon Asia (SEMA) team is another branch of the GRT. This year a team of nine students, the only Australian secondary school to ever compete travelled to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to compete on the world stage. The team had been working for many months on improving the vehicle, Incharge, from our 2018 campaign. This year the team was lucky enough to be sponsored by Shell Australia. This was a wonderful opportunity to gain some extra media attention.

The event itself was a whirlwind of a week. After assembling the vehicle, the team had to pass technical inspection, which was a nail-biting three hours. The last few adjustments were passed the following day and then out onto the track for the test run. The purpose of the Shell Eco Marathon event is for a team’s vehicle to travel the greatest distance on the least amount of energy consumption. In our case, the greatest number of kilometres on the least number of kilowatt hours.

Our ultra-futuristic looking vehicle Incharge, designed and constructed by Mr Lucas Kirby (OGA), Mr Robin Kirby and in concert with Mr Rod Smith and the SEMA team performed, for the most part smoothly. The team did have a couple of hiccups to overcome, such is the nature of this event with competing, highly tuned and finessed engines. Each team has eight attempts to drive four laps of the 2.1km circuit in as close to 20 minutes as possible. Throughout the following two days of competition the team undertook their eight runs and progressively fared better results. The idea is to alter different components in-between runs to try and find the optimum energy efficiency settings. The team’s final result was 284.4 km per KWatt hour which placed them in 5th position in the battery electric category. This was a mammoth effort with the team pitting their skills and vehicle against 22 university teams, invited to the event from across Asia. That result was one place better than last year and a great improvement on efficiency.

The team went home so proud of their efforts and have spent the rest of this year, brainstorming, improving and working on the vehicle and the team’s strategies for the 2020 event. The team would like to specifically thank Mr Rod Smith, Mr Peter Martin and Mr Robin Kirby for their knowledge and expertise they have given the team.

The final event of the year is the annual Maryborough Energy Breakthrough where the GRT is launching an exciting new vehicle which is both pedal and electric. It will race in the Hybrid category. This will be a great new branch of the GRT and hopefully, bring with it good results. Three HPV teams have also entered the event, one being our All-Female team.

The Girton Racing Team has had a very busy year of racing all over the Victoria, South Australia and again, internationally. The GRT would like to thank Mr Robin Kirby, Mr David Stone, Mr Andrew Turpie and all the other parents and friends that have given their support throughout the year. Finally, thank you too, to our MiC Mr Nigel Vernon who has efficiently run the club and given endless hours to organising and running each event. It is greatly appreciated by all, students, families and Staff.

Captains of Girton Racing Team

Emma Greenall (11 Riley)

Mason Conquer (11 Jenkin)

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