Announcing the $25,000 Dempsey - MacCready Hour Record Prize

A new $25,000 cash prize will be awarded to the first single rider human powered land vehicle to equal or surpass 90 kilometers in one hour (55.924 mph). Sponsored by Dempsey World Record Associates of Santa Ana, the prize will be administered through the Human Powered Vehicle Association under regulations created by the HPVA.

Ed Dempsey, a successful businessman, winning race car driver and inventor, has provided over $30,000 in prizes to be awarded during a five-year period. Dempsey is a friend of Dr. Paul MacCready, winner of the first Kremer Prizes for human powered flight, and the prize is the outcome of their conversations. Dempsey, is fascinated by speed, and likes to support events which push the envelope. He currently has designed and built a streamlined battery powered electric racer which has gone 237 mph at Bonneville. Dempsey hopes to break 300 mph during the summer of 1999.

Supplemental awards of $2,000 are being offered to any competitor who breaks an official hour record by 3%, during the period of the Prize. In addition, $500 will be given to the winner of the yearly hour race at the annual Human Powered Speed Championships. The complete regulations are available on the HPVA webpages at Dempsey - MacCready One hour Record Prize and are published in HPV News. HPVA members from any country may compete for the prize, and the challenge may take place in any country.

The details of the prize, including the regulations, were developed by HPVA members Chester Kyle, Allan Abbott, Bill Gaines, Paul MacCready and Doug Milliken, with significant contributions by President Chris Broome and Past President Carole Leone.

The traditional Cycling World Hour Record is the most famous in cycling, with records being kept as far back as 1876 when Frank Dodds of England pedaled 25.506 km (15.8 mph) on a high wheeler. In the past some of the best professional racing cyclists in the World have held the hour record including Marcel Berthet, Oscar Egg, Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx, and Miguel Indurain. The current hour record for traditional cycling is 56.137 km (34.882 mph), set by English professional Chris Boardman in 1996 on a conventional aero track racing bicycle. However, streamlined HPV’s are more than 20 kph faster than Boardman, and they are powered by amateur racing cyclists. Using the sleek streamlined HPV "Varna", designed and built by George Georgiev of Canada, Canadian amateur Sam Whittingham holds the current unlimited HPV record of 79.136 kph (49.173 mph), set in 1998.

A computer model of the HPV hour race, indicates it will take a combination of a national caliber racing cyclist, riding a World class HPV such as the Varna, along with an excellent course and ideal conditions to claim the Dempsey - MacCready Prize. It will be difficult, but it can be done. The required human power is formidable. Only top competitive cyclists can manage the more than 400 watts necessary to cover 90 km in one hour (0.54 horsepower).

Briefly, the simple prize rules require a single rider HPV on a circuit course closed to automobile traffic. The HPV can be no larger than 1.5 meters high, 1 meter wide and 3.1 meters long. The size limits are to minimize the effect of wind on propulsion. Any number of wheels are legal. There are no elevation, wind or grade restrictions.

The Dempsey - MacCready prize was created to inspire innovation in human powered vehicles and to promote ultra light, low energy consumption, high speed human powered transportation. The prize will present a dramatic challenge to dozens of teams throughout the World involving literally hundreds of people. From experience with previous challenge prizes the HPVA has administered, the attempts will come from a wide variety of competitors from engineers, scientists and students, to artisans and garage shop inventors. Technology from our past competitions has found its way into low energy vehicles, from automobiles to aircraft and the experience has helped participants develop the confidence and skills necessary to solve complex problems in many other fields.

The HPVA has offered three challenge prizes during the past 20 years, the $3,000 Abbott Prize, the $15,000 Dupont Speed Prize and the $25,000 Dupont Water Prize. In 1977, M.D. Allan Abbott created his prize for the first human powered vehicle that could break the national speed limit of 55 mph. It was won in 1979 at 55.85 mph by engineering students from the Northrop Institute with a vehicle called the White Lightning. Two of the students are still involved in cycling. Tim Brummer manufactures a bicycle recumbent called the Lightning, and Don Guichard is in charge of advanced engineering design for GT Bicycles.

In 1983, the Dupont Company donated the funds for a prize for the first HPV that could break 65 mph for 200 meters with a flying start. The prize lasted for three years before it was claimed. More than a dozen pedal-powered vehicles made attempts at the prize during that time, and many more than that were built. The prize was won in 1986 by Gardner Martin’s Gold Rush at a speed of 65.54 mph. Gardner Martin now manufactures Easy Racer Recumbents in Watsonville, California.

In 1989, the Dupont water prize was organized, offering $25,000 to the first human powered watercraft that could go 20 knots for 100 meters. After a time period of three years, in 1992, the prize was given to the fastest craft, a human powered hydrofoil built by Mark Drela of MIT. It was powered by a pusher air propeller and achieved a speed of 18.50 knots (34.3 kph, 21.3 mph). Mark Drela is a Professor of Engineering at MIT and has organized an institute for the study of cycling.