Sport
10 November, 2022
Aurora Racing’s Daryl Stewart reflects on exceptional year ahead of Energy Breakthrough
With Energy Breakthrough (EB) just around the corner, within Maryborough lies a team that has built a successful operation consisting of many people who came up through the local event, establishing themselves as a major force in Australian...
With Energy Breakthrough (EB) just around the corner, within Maryborough lies a team that has built a successful operation consisting of many people who came up through the local event, establishing themselves as a major force in Australian human-powered vehicle (HPV) racing.
Aurora Racing competes in the Australian HPV Super Series, which is run throughout different locations in South Australia, with the vehicles for events designed and made in Maryborough.
The HPV vehicle that was designed for the 2022 Australian HPV Super Series is a unique full carbon frame vehicle which can reach speeds of up to 60 km/h, with a large majority of riders coming up from previous EB events.
The team is operated by Maryborough local Daryl Stewart, who built the trike with his son, while the team consists of elite riders, which includes Lauchlan Stewart, Steele Von Hoff — a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the road race, Mark Henriksen, Sam Dutli, Liam McCormick, Kyle Lierich, Jeremy McInnes and Aaron Stewart.
In the 2022 series, Aurora Racing were the winners of the open class of the Australian International Pedal Prix.
The team secured wins at Mount Gambier in their eight-hour event, two victories at The Bend Motorsport Park in Tailem Bend in a six-hour and eight-hour race, and perhaps their biggest result, finishing first in the Murray Bridge street race, setting a new distance record in the event.
Stewart beams with pride when he talks about his race team, and goes to great lengths to ensure his team can compete at the highest level.
“The pride is all about who did it — my son and myself, jointly, built the trike. I work at the hospital and my son is an engineer. He’s come up through the Energy Breakthrough from primary school, and he’s raced in other teams for a long, long time. Our pride is building a trike that has seen factory teams admit they can’t build anything like it,” he said.
“There is a lot of dedication involved in our sport. These guys will ride three to four hours a day just in training. It’s a ridiculous sport that I wouldn’t have gone into when I was younger because the training involved, and the hours and hours involved is outrageous.
“We don’t have sponsors, we are self-funded. The boys actually pay by breaking the costs up ourselves. As far as support goes for a 24-hour race, apart from myself, we’ve also had a professional bike mechanic there, we have a trike technician there, a masseuse and pit crew. It’s a big cast.”
Stewart said there was the potential for more success last year which was ended by the COVID lockdowns, which lit a fire within the team to achieve its success in 2022.
“We’re a dedicated team, but we’ve been on and off for a little while. We actually started last year, but COVID stuffed it up. We got two races in last year that we won, but the series was cancelled as we couldn’t get across the border, so we came out with fire in the belly,” he said.
Ahead of EB, Stewart says there’s always room for talent to show their wares in grassroots HPV events, while also offering advice for first-timers in this year’s edition.
“We’re always on the lookout for talent. You have to be different to ride for our team. A rider with the achievements like Steele Von Hoff shows you the level that you have to be at to race,” he said.
“For any first timers, I’ve coached Highview College and Avoca Primary School in the past. The biggest advice I would give riders would be to use your brains and pick the right racing line. And if you haven’t got the line right, slow down.”
Stewart also has great pride in knowing there is more than just his team that likely utilised EB events to help build a professionally-organised HPV team.
“The funny part about it is that our biggest rivals are Wattle Racing, who have come up from Bendigo, and their riders would have likely come up from Energy Breakthrough as well,” he said.