2005 - 2006 Campaigns

AURORA WARMS UP TO 24 HOURS AT MARYBOROUGH
THE RACV ENERGY BREAKTHROUGH

26 November 2005

The 'Battered Sav' lap record from 2001 held firm; 45.55 km/h around the 1.34 km RACV track in the centre of Maryborough. Even Sirloin, a hybrid HPV couldn't do it back in 2004. But there were plenty of BBQs, burnt meat, red faces and schoolies at the fantastic 2005 RACV Energy Breakthrough in the country Victoria town of Maryborough.

Aurora drew a crowd

Driver Derrick gets help to get in

Aurora displayed the world famous Aurora 101 solar car for another year at this splendid event capturing the interest of school entrants in the variety of 'sustainable' events featured during this Le Mans type weekend. Aurora is developing a new solar car and is looking for 5 high school teams to share in the new design and set their sights on the commemorative 8th World Solar Challenge to be held late in 2007.

Since the last Energy Breakthrough event in 2004 Aurora has set a new 24 hour world record for solar cars on 1 January 2005 covering 1225 km. Aurora 101 has also finished 3rd in Japan's biggest solar car race [76 entries] at the Suzuka Formula 1 track in August as well as 2nd in the World Solar Challenge in September. This visit to Maryborough has inspired Aurora and its sister team Southern Aurora from Hamilton to plan another 24 hour record on 29 December 2005.

Our favorite HPV was going to always be the Berwick team with their new vehicle named Firetruck. It was completed just in time including a real fire engine red paint job. Aurora team member Daniel Mills was the body builder of Firetruck and continued his talent for getting onside with the girls, this time from St Margarets School in Berwick [All pink, and not to be confused with the hybrid team from Mater Christi].

Firetruck on course		Firetruck pit stop

Daniel's girls		St Margarets team pit stop

Obi-one was there as was Obi-two. They were mixing it with the Dark Angels and Lumenate.
Our girls in Something Blonde had to deal with the Tazmaniacs [yep from Tasmania] Mad Dogs and Perfect Insanity. In the open all out HPV category Firetruck had to stay clear of Top Gun, Firebird, Run A Muck and Gotcha. As it turned out they needed to get close to the winner to learn how to spell Bukkamalazir. This team from Bendigo set a new event distance record of 651 laps or 872.34 km. Firetruck finished with 609 laps and the Blondes created a new lap record for an all girl team of 467 laps. You get tired just thinking about it!

Over on the shorter Holden track dedicated to hybrid HPVs [a combination of pedal power and electricity or petrol assist] the field of 38 entrants was led away by the Staughton College entry, EPS Racing. Relying on sharklike decoration they stayed in first place for 24 hours recording 663 laps. Actually sharks were everywhere in this field. The Mater Christi team had the right idea. Their pit signals were progressive iterations of 'knock- knock' jokes.

Mater Christi team member		Mater Christi on the starting grid

Spectators

Staughton College winner

Kings School Diesel Demon

Melbourne Girls College CARcharias		Mater Christi pit signals

Keen observers of the grand event were Jack Haley from NRMA in Sydney together with ex NRMA technical supremo and WSC official John Ward. Guess there may be a new HPV event in Sydney before long.

Jack Haley from NRMA

Stuart Charity, head of the Society of Automotive Engineers was also in attendance just before the annual Formula SAE runoff event in the following week. Don Elliott from Chisholm Institute, builder of some of the better aerodynamic bodies featured in the HPVs was also in attendance.

Stuart Charity from SAE

The seven Aurora team members had a great day at this event and look forward to next year.