RACING a pedal prix vehicle to the Queensland championships takes the right stuff and one team of eight from Aquinas College, Ashmore, has it in spades.
This crew and their AC-Elite pedal-powered roadster took out the championship in their secondary school opens league at a track in Toowoomba on Saturday.
At the top of the squad are the two seniors – the Billingham twins, Ryan and Riley, known for drawing out multi-lap leads in the AC-Elite (and who are also both international triathletes).
The younger members of the squad, a crew of rising stars and steadfast teammates, include Kealy Kitkevics, Miller Turner, Samuel Lang, Monique Cunial, Dan Roberts and Nick Luck.
The racer seats one driver, who pedals the three-wheel vehicle in hours-long endurance heats.
The Aquinas racers clocks speeds of 55kmh in their AC-Elite.
Climbing inside the cockpit is cramped, only room to do your job – pedal, and pedal hard.
You lay down flat in the seat (like luge) and visibility, even with windows all around, is limited to what you can see over your knees.
Even after a few minutes, not traveling anywhere near the speed that the racers go, the temperature inside the capsule steadily rose and the noise was intense.
A combination of how low to the ground the vehicle sits and the panoramic view inside the capsule makes it feel a lot faster than it is.
Team co-ordinator Brad Pledge brought the idea of racing pedal prix vehicles to Aquinas College in the 2000s.
He said in the last 20 years running the event, he had not seen a team like the one he was managing this season.
A combination of the talent on the team and the AC-Elite vehicle, which the college purchased from a supplier in South Australia, has led to the team going undefeated, he said.
They have drawn out multi-lap leads up to 39 laps, or 42km ahead of second place.
The Billingham twins said they knew the vehicle inside and out.
They said being part of the team also meant learning the mechanics of the vehicle, how to fix it in the pit stops and “racecraft” – knowing what points in the race are safe to go into the pits, when to push through and when to swap drivers.
All the racers agreed that being inside the capsule when it is at top speed is a “whole other world”.
College principal Marcus Richardson was out there in Toowoomba cheering the team on.
He said the races were riveting.
“There’s so much energy about the team,” he said, “and it comes from both the staff and students.”
Most of all, he said, the team have a great love for the spirit of racing itself, even helping new teams get on board and offer advice on the race days.
The race on Saturday was in a different format, one designed by race co-ordinator Paul Hand, a retired teacher at Aquinas, to increase the intensity for the spectators and racers.
The league has taken the team of eight from Emerald to Benaraby to Ipswich to Brisbane and out to Toowoomba.
Win after win has seen the entire Aquinas College community become invested in the team’s success, making their victory all the sweeter.
