Today was the big day for the endurance race. Here is the crowd getting organized for the group shot.
Props to Rose Hulman for lifting their bike with rider.
Bill gets in on the bike lifting action.
Rena and Bill get in some practice on the course.
And here we go! the LeMans start.
We are seeded first, as determined by our position from the Womens’ sprint. Bill gets a much quicker start than everyone else.
Last year’s winner: South Dakota State.
She came in a little too hot into the hairpin turn and went over. Fortunately she was OK.
Bill taking the hairpin.
Two tilting trikes in the competition: this one from Missouri S&T.
This one from UW-Milwaukee.
Bill switches with Calvin.
Calvin in traffic.
Our bike can corner tighter than some.
This padding was added to the prone bike since yesterday. I was told after the race that it didn’t help much.
Now it’s Rena’s turn.
Traffic jam leading up to the hairpin.
#15 is determined to finish.
Rena in the hairpin. SDSU was trying to keep up with her for her entire shift.
On the aerobars..
Grocery dropoff.
In the meantime, the team from Puerto Rico is dancing up a storm in the pits.
MSE leading Harvard.
Rena into the pits after her shift.
Off goes Josh.
Josh takes the checkered flag. We finished 7 laps higher than the next closest team.
Home team MSU was our neighbour in the pits.
On the other side, perennial powerhouse team M S&T, plus a bonus egyptian team.
The team post race.
Alumni Thomas and Bruce join in on the fun.
Luke takes a few hot laps since he didn’t get to ride during the race.
Now the awards.
Overall, the team finished 2nd. Hats off to Ohio U who were first, beating us by less than one point out of 88. They were first in design. For our report, there was a penalty assessed for not having a rollover protection system, which contributed to us only being 4th on design. We had hoped to make up the difference in the dynamic events. Also props to Akron for their pretty bike and the photo finishes with Calvin in the mens’ sprint. Official results here
This was also the first time that we won all the dynamic events, AFAIK.
The team had speculated that with the evolution of the HPVC away from speed, and with the addition of many obstacles to the endurance race, that an ordinary bike would do well. I think that this was fully demonstrated this year.
Special kudos to team captain Bill Kong who brought this idea to fruition, and who expended a huge effort in the past three weeks to get the new bike done.
We’ll regroup after this event to decide what comes next for our team.
Congratulations Team Toronto! It was a lot of fun watching you all perform and getting to meet you. Very impressive effort. All the best in your engineering careers. Hope to see you racing again next year.
Maybe we’ll see you at Waterford. You can try Vortex.
I’m planning on attending this year and would love to try Vortex as long as it’s not a video camera view setup. Don’t think I’d be able to handle that!