General News
13 March, 2019
Terang teams ready for racing
AN UP and coming Terang team is gearing up for the start of the season in a little known sport.
AN UP and coming Terang team is gearing up for the start of the season in a little known sport.
Crank It Racing, a team made up of Terang locals, races two trikes in Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) events across Australia.
Team manager Bowen Kemp said the team was formed in 2017 after they had been involved in HPV through a program at Terang College and has been competing in races for the past two years.
He said they had experienced mixed results in their debut season, but said they had started to show improvement last year.
That coincided with the addition of a second vehicle, which has given them an opportunity to race an A trike for the more serious riders and a B trike, for the social members.
“Last year was our first year with the new vehicle and we came second in our category and 12th overall for the Victorian (grand prix series), which wasn’t limited to just Victorian riders,” he said.
“That has progressed to us doing more races (this year) and being more involved and now we are going to Busselton, so we are really motivated to see how far we can push this team.”
Crank It Racing is now gearing up for its second campaign with two trikes, which gets under way later this month with an interstate trip to Mount Gambier.
“We have Mount Gambier on the 30th of March and we’re hoping to perform really well at that race, it’s in a different series, it’s the South Australian series,” Kemp said.
“It’s a big race that one, it’s the first one of the South Australian series and well over 100 teams race at that so we’re hoping to perform in the top 20, top 10.
“It’s a lot harder series so if we can crack the top 20 we would be very happy with that.”
Other events on their calendar include races at Casey Fields, Bendigo, North Melbourne, Murray Bridge, Adelaide and of course Busselton.
With a busy schedule ahead of them, Kemp said he and his team-mates are on the lookout for some off-track support.
He said currently the team was all self-funded but had some sponsors who were currently covering the cost of maintaining, running and entering races”.
Down the track, ideally they do not want to fund the purchase of upgrades entirely themselves but require some help to remain competitive and among the top echelon of vehicles.
“At the moment, we are probably making a loss for the season at the end of the day because there is so much money that goes into maintaining these vehicles,” Kemp said.
“We do have a third vehicle in the shed, which was the fastest vehicle in Australia in 2009, and we’re trying to get that back on the track this year.”
However, Kemp said the team was looking at needing to spend between $2000 to $3000 to get the trike back up and racing.
“That’s the goal going into 2020, we want to have this vehicle up and running because we are thinking about selling that B trike,” he said.
“Those vehicles are five and 15 years-old at least and we are struggling to get the latest stuff to keep up with those top teams but for what we have got we are doing damn well.
“We just want to continue going forward and you know crack that top five, top 10 and potentially see ourselves on the podium one day.”
With the big impending trip across the Nullabor also awaiting them, Kemp said the team would also like to gain some sponsors to help them out with their costs of entering that event.
“We are driving over 36 hours one way to race a six hour race in Busselton, as crazy as that seems,” he said.
“But we are looking to find potential sponsors to jump on board and help us out and cover the cost in fuel or food because it’s going to be $2000 in fuel alone.
“We are looking for anyone that can help out, if they want to contact me via the Facebook page ‘Crank It Racing’ that’s the best thing they could probably do.”
For more information on the team or to get involved, visit https://www.facebook.com/Crank-It-Racing-304794076586984/.