Hit Racing Hitachi Elite Women’s Team Launched in Brisbane

Hitachi naming rights sponsor

This article produced with kind permission from CycleSportNews.com

CycleSportNews Website

Back in November, 2004, cycling visionaries, Robert Godson, Peter Richards and Ashley Curtis, fuelled with a desire to nurture a group of like-minded, dedicated cyclists, came up with the idea of creating their own semi-professional team. 

It was virtually over the bonnet of a car, that the idea of Hit Racing was born, and from this humble beginning, a dedicated group of cyclists was able to emerge, all with a strong passion to do well in the sport, and all with an overwhelming sense of team spirit. 

Robert, Peter and Ashley were joined by Gavin Smith and Ray Davis, and over the ensuing months, the Hit Racing project began to gather momentum. 

“We just wanted to foster a group of dedicated and competitive riders, to mentor and support our juniors and above all , we just wanted to have some fun”, Robert explained to CSN. 

“We are providing a pathway to assist these young people to achieve their dreams”.

Enjoyment aside, Hit Racing has managed to mould itself into a very serious racing proposition, and many of the juniors, including Brodie Stewart,  Lucy Mosley, Zoe Appel and Tarquin Wallace have started to make a name for themselves at state and national level. 

They have since been joined by the likes of Bridget Mohr, Ian Richards and junior sensation, Jordan Kerby, so the future of Hit Racing seems absolutely assured. 

On the 7th June, Hit Racing took its support of all levels of cycling to a new height, with the launch of an exciting new women’s elite cycling team made up of some of Queensland’s leading riders:

             Kate Mercer (running second in the National Road Series, AIS)

            Emma Mackie (current Club National Champion, AIS)

            Carly Hibberd (current SEQ Elite Womens A  leader)

            Angie Papajcsick. (current SEQ Elite Womens B  leader)

The team is the first of its kind to attract a major sponsorship deal, and they are hopeful of attracting more young cyclists into the team as a result.

A proud Robert Godson explained, “These girls exemplify commitment, loyalty and a great ability to work in a team environment. Already they have had a huge impact, and they are certainly giving the juniors something to aspire too”. 

HITACHI Construction Machinery (Australia) Pty Ltd,  the naming rights sponsor for the team, held the launch of the new Hit Racing Elite Women’s team at their newly commissioned workshop at Archerfield in Brisbane.

The launch was officially opened by Hitachi’s National Marketing manager Mr Dean Mesh and Queensland Sales Manager Gavin Smith. 

Olympic gold medallist, Sara Carrigan was one of sixty revellers who joined in the festivities that also included representatives from the media, members of the Balmoral Cycling Club and the Queensland Academy of Sport, and of course, Hit Racing’s family of sponsors.

Carrigan, who won Gold at the Athens Olympics in the women’s road race, shared her knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport and introduced several new junior team members and the handed out the new HIT Racing team kits (supplied by Triple Play) to the Women’s Elite Team. 

"We are grateful that Hitachi and other sponsors have come on board to support the cycling youth of this country and help them to fulfil their goals" Robert Godson told Cycle Sport News. 

Hitachi has been hugely supportive of Hit Racing since its inception in 2004, and Hit Racing has also received generous backing from the Wealth Acceleration Group, Triple Play. Enetech Solutions, Plains Bicycles, ZIPP, North Wave and the Donchi Group. 

The Hit Racing Hitachi Elite Women’s team plans to ride the remainder of the Queensland Road calendar and is hopeful of invitations to ride at the Jayco Bay Series,  the Geelong Cup and possibly the Tour Down Under.

Two of the Hit Racing riders, Kate Mercer and Emma Mackie, are off to Italy this month to ride in the Women’s Giro with the AIS.