After a two-year hiatus it was so good to be back at Maryborough last weekend for the 2022 Energy Breakthrough event. Many big days, weekends and late nights in preparation meant we were all pretty weary but happy when we arrived at the site last Thursday morning. Heavy rain had resulted in mud, more mud and did I mention, mud, which made setting up camp rather interesting.

But by Thursday night we had all gathered as a team and were a happy bunch of muddy students, 2 staff and dedicated volunteers.

Friday saw us attend display, presentation, design and construction events where the students did well explaining to panels of judges the technology of our home built vehicles and what Damascus SRT is all about.

It was gratifying just to be there…many schools have cancelled their programs all together and many others had purchased commercially made vehicles: we continue to build all ours in house because the knowledge gained from having to create a machine capable of 24 hours of continuous operation is just incredible. It’s STEM in action.

The main trial began on Saturday at 1pm, but not before we had to shift our camp site completely by hand for 500 metres (2.5 tonnes of gear) because of impending storms. This was undertaken with good humour by all despite the inconvenience. Then on the Saturday night the race was stopped for 5 hours whilst we were evacuated to an indoor venue as large hail was predicted. Again our team showed great resilience and adaptability as we trudged through the rain to get to our designated shelter, and back again at 10pm.

Our students behaved and rode magnificently, especially considering how young and relatively inexperienced the team is. Waking up from sleep at 3am to walk through the mud and get into a wet cold trike and then ride their hour shift in the rain is not an easy task but our students responded so well.

The drama of the weekend continued on Sunday morning when the propulsion battery charging station caught fire and we subsequently lost a third of our brand new batteries and all our charging equipment. This changed the strategy of the race for us, but we managed to cross the line with all three machines still running, albeit in lower finishing positions than we might have achieved with a full complement of batteries.

The Maryborough Energy Breakthrough is not called a challenge for nothing… it’s a gruelling event without all the extra happening’s that came our way this year. But because of the great attitude and willingness of our team to go the extra mile, I think we have built some special bonds that will carry us forward into the future. Our grateful thanks to all who helped make the weekend happen.

The results are as follows: -

"Concorde" #37 5th overall EEV(hybrid). 1st in category. 379 laps - 599 km

"SpeedeeV" #338 7th overall EEV(sps). 3rd in category. 368 laps -581 km

"Tassie Devil" #38 8th overall EEV(hybrid). 4th in category. 344 laps - 544 km

Total- 1724 kms ridden between the 3 teams.

What an effort to embrace 'Be My Best'

Alan Strange and Rachael Beardall

Damascus SRT Program