Holy Trinity out in front at Super Series

A contingent of more than 150 students, including 52 racers, made the trip to Tailem Bend for the highly anticipated race.

Holy Trinity Racing team manager Matt McLoughlin was delighted with the team's performance on the day.

"The big achievement for us is that every vehicle we entered ended up in the top 10 of their category," Mr McLoughlin said.

Four of the school's six vehicles ended up in the top 100 vehicles, including three podium finishes.

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The school entered teams in all six school categories at the event; Years 5-7, 8-10 and 11-12, and their all-female equivalents.

The Year 5-7 girls team, racing in Hurricane, won their category by more than 30 kilometres, about 10 laps of the circuit at Tailem Bend.

"They could have stopped pedalling with two hours to go and still won their category," Mr McLoughlin said.

"That's how far in front they were."

Not to be outdone, the Year 8-10 girls team won their category by six laps, or about an hour before time ran out, McLoughlin said.

The Year 6-7 boys team finished strongly, coming from the sixth position with an hour remaining to finish third.

"It was a really good finish to see them coming home that strongly at the end of the race, when a lot of people are getting tired," Mr McLoughlin said.

Pedal Prix events are time-based, with competing teams in all categories racing around a track simultaneously.

The event's goal is to accrue laps over the allotted time as each vehicle is equipped with a transponder that tracks distances travelled.

The team that completes the most laps of a circuit judged the winner.

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Event length varies significantly, with races ranging from a few hours up to twenty-four, Mr McLoughlin said.

Round two of the HPV Super Series was eight hours, and in all, there were 181 vehicles on the track.

Holy Trinity Lutheran College first started racing 13 years ago, with just one vehicle - known as a trike - in one race out of Melbourne.

The school competed in the Super Series with fifty-two students from Years 5 to 12 are involved in the team, with a waiting list of students who weren't chosen during selection trials.

"We try to get as many students involved, and give them an opportunity to have a bit of fun, do a bit of physical activity and participate in what is a really cool sport," Mr McLoughlin said.

McLoughlin joined the school in 2016, but he had been involved in the sport since his school days in South Australia.

"Some people say there's a bug, you just get hooked on the sport and just want to stick with it," Mr McLoughlin said.

Connections with the sport even helped him find himself at Holy Trinity, Mr McLoughlin said.

The now-team manager is as involved as ever.

His job includes organising training sessions run every week in the Horsham Velodrome, vehicle maintenance, and support sessions to teach students technical details like racing lines or give feedback on races.

Sourcing funds for trips such as Tailem Bend are vital to the success of the college's racing team.

And while Mr McLoughlin may be proud of his team's performance, the next race is always on the horizon, and there's work to be done to ensure the team is ready.

"It's not a time for rest and relaxation while the season's on," he said.

"We come back after racing for hours in the trikes and we have to strip them all back to make sure that mechanically they're okay."

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