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Once a year, for over 25 years in a row, the sleepy little town of Maryborough in the Victorian Goldfields gets invaded by thousands of racing enthusiasts for a 24 hour endurance race around the streets of the town centre, mostly around the footy oval, where the race participants camp for the duration of the event.
Here you are imagining the pungent smell of petrol, burning rubber and the roar of engines… right?
Instead, there’s the thrumming whine of thin light wheels on the tarmac, the rhythmic laboured squeak of chains and sprockets in the need of an urgent pit stop, laboured breathing, and urgent slurping of the fatigued and tired driver, straining away to finish their leg of the race, and maybe, just maybe the powerful buzz of an electric engine hurtling the little streamlined, bullet like vehicle around the last corner to accelerate violently down the main straight.
Yep, its not a normal race- its a human powered / electric race, and the vehicles are effectively like billycarts on steroids.
Secondary Schoolgroups from all around the state of Victoria converge to compete with their home baked, unique concept vehicles, switching drivers regularly to cover an epic distance of close to 1000 kilometres along the 1.4km loop track.
This is racing at its purest, and the speeds some of these contraptions achieve is pretty impressive.. and just like any other racing, its not without its perils- the action at the corners, and down the straight can be brilliant as the drivers battle it out viciously.
Tumbling rollovers, brutal collisions and the drama of the track all exist. This race is like le mans, crossed with tour de france, and the great Australian solar challenge.
All I can say, is it was definitely worth being a spectator for a bit. Just fascinating. All I could do was stop myself from throwing one of the kids out of the drivers seat, commandeering one of the machines, and having a raz at driving one myself!