Over the Easter break some of Australia’s fastest trike riders took to the Ford Proving Grounds in Lara, Victoria to push themselves to the limit in search of absolute speed. Many of the riders, designers and support personnel have had a connection to Pedal Prix racing across South Australia and Victoria over the past 30 years. At the centre of this search for speed is Tim Corbett who has ridden and designed many record-breaking trikes including his current machine dubbed the “Phantom Mini-T”. Over the course of the weekend athletes Kyle Lierich and Tim Marquardt among others piloted the trike in a multitude of record attempts, with outstanding success.
A person who has always had a love for racing trikes Kyle Lierich mentioned how “they always gave me so much purpose, enjoyment with friends and simply I love going fast!”. The weekend saw Kyle do battle with his own 1hr and 6hr Trike Speed Records (set separately in 2016 & 2018), his preparation is comparable to that of a marathon runner aiming to compete in a marathon and a 5km sprint in the same weekend, an improbable task.
Saturday was set for the 6 hr attempt, starting later than expected at 8:00am it heated up quickly, outside temperatures soon reached 30 degrees with internal trike temperatures soaring much higher. Kyle managed to average 63.95km/h to break his own record by 8km, setting a 387km World Record (still to be ratified).
Fantastic conditions on the Sunday with low wind, no cloud and warm air temperatures saw Tim Marquardt test out the “Mini-T”. Amazingly he fitted with his head firmly wedged against the roof, he was ready to see what he and the trike is capable of. Tim recalled that “by the end of lap 1, I’d managed to get up to 80kmh on the long ever so slightly downhill straight… Holy cow, this was going to be quick. Many successive laps under 4 minutes made me realise I was in track for a 72+km run.” Averaging 90% of his max HR he cranked out a 73.05km in an hour, a staggering performance and a new Masters Record (Pending Ratification).
A flying 200 attempt which is a max speed run saw Kyle set a World Record Multi Track speed of 94.5km/h, before he jumped in for the hour attempt later in the afternoon. Setting a quick pace early Kyle said “I had the ride of a lifetime, and somehow my legs performed really well. In the hour record, you start from a standing start, so getting up to speed is very important. By about 3mins, I was north of 80km/h, and each lap I was averaging about 83km/h. I ended up smashing a new record – setting 81.63km in one hour”. All records are currently pending final ratification before being official.
An amazing weekend of achievements, of which we have only highlighted a few. Tim Corbett must be thanked for his dedication, and passion to developing such an incredible speed machine.
If you would like to find out more about the speed record attempts have a chat to Kyle at any Pedal Prix event where he continues to race for Team Relentless or to Tim Marquardt who can often be found behind the desk at the Trisled tent.
See below for a full list of provisional results from the weekend.
Unfaired Flying 200:
Dome Deli – 46.59 (possible new OzHPV record)
Charles E.B – 50.tbc (possible new OzHPV record)
Faired Flying 200
Kyle Lierich phantom Mini-T – 94.56 km/hr (possible new OzHPV record)
Dome Deli – Phantom Mini-T – 86.06 km/hr (PB)
Nick Chau – Phantom Mini-T – 80.tbc km/hr (PB)
Charles E.B – Phantom Mini-T – 79.30 km/hr
Alistair – Monash – V2 – 75.46 km/hr (PB)
Gareth Hanks & Charles E.B – Twin hawk tandem- 66.39 km/hr (possible new OzHPV record)
One Hour
Kyle Lierich – Phantom Mini-T – 81.63km (possible new W/R)
Tim Marquardt – Phantom Mini-T – 73.05km (possible new W/R)
Gareth Hanks – Aquilla – 52.61km
Dome Deli – Aquila – 48.30km
Charles E.B – Aquila – 47.53km
Nick Chau – Aquila – 42.37km
Ethan Connelly and Tim Marquardt – Twim Hawk tandem – 50.84km (possible new OzHPV record)
Alison and Tim Marquardt – Twin Hawk tandem – 49.49km (possible new OzHPV record and W/R)
Rachel Swain and Jonothan Keane – Twin Hawk tandem – 47.69km
Six hour
Kyle Lierich – Phantom Mini-T – 383.72km – 63.95 km/hr (possible new W/R)
***This event is not run by the Australian International Pedal Prix or the UniSA Australian HPV Super Series***
