Celebrating 30 years of the Pedal Prix Road Runners

The Australian HPV Super Series is staged by Australian International Pedal Prix Inc. and is a competition where teams race Human Powered Vehicles (HPV’s) on a closed controlled circuit.
1994 – Principal Julian Denholm brought with him the enthusiasm of participating in the Pedal Prix, and after much preparation and training saw Year 6/7 students competing in the Australian International Pedal Prix in October and annually thereafter. Initially the event was held at the International Raceway at Virginia and in 1997 moved to Murray Bridge, where public roads were shut specially for the event.

Over the years St John’s has seen many students, teachers and parents involved in Pedal Prix. Families involved were committed to weekly training sessions, providing afternoon teas, fundraising, supervising, timing, catering, camping, fundraising, sponsorship, pit crewing, marshalling and much more. It was a massive commitment from the whole family.
In 2004 parent volunteers made a second Pedal Prix car to replace the first car that had been used for 10 years. Technology evolved to produce aero-efficient cars instead of the clunky vehicles that everyone was using initially.
Sponsorship has been important with many local businesses contributing financially to support the schools Pedal Prix team. Each sponsor had a sticker made for promotion on the Pedal Prix car each year. We were very fortunate to have community support through sponsorship.
Selling chocolates to raise money was a big help to pay for expenses and later chocolate fundraising became compulsory for all families organized by the P&F and not just for Pedal Prix families. These sales raised over $2000 each year which was a fantastic effort and helped to purchase new car, maintenance requirements, registrations and other running costs. A couple of quiz nights were also held as major fundraisers to support Pedal Prix over the years.
In 2018 St John’s celebrated 25 years of being involved in Pedal Prix. There was a buzz within the team at that time with birthday cakes, radio interviews, newspaper publications and then a celebration with a dinner and sharing of memories. This was held in the school hall with past teachers, students and principals attending.
With declining numbers of students committing and the clash of the 24-hour race with our local football/netball grand final it was decided that we would not participate in the 24-hour event and participate in the two 6-hour events in Adelaide at Victoria Park. As of 2015 the Loxton event was added, so our Roadrunners team then competed in three 6-hour events each year.
In 2020 the team and parents had met in readiness to start their training sessions, registration for the 2020 6-hour event was submitted and then Covid was announced. All events in 2020 were then cancelled much to the disappointment of many.

We have been blessed as a school with many years of Pedal Prix involvement and many students have gone on to also participate in secondary school teams at Faith Lutheran College, Eudunda Area School, Kapunda High School, Nurioopta High School and Xavier College. Past students and parents have also had their own or joined other adult teams participating once their secondary schooling had finished.
The Victory Team with past students and families are still currently riding at events in 2024 and as a school we were thankful for their help with the sale of our old Pedal Prix cars for repurposing and for another secondary school to now use.
Can you remember being involved at the 6hr at Victoria Park or the excitement of the 24hr at Murray Bridge? I think everyone dreaded ‘crash corner’! I wonder if those in the first teams remember racing at Virginia.