Competition at today’s opening round of the 2010 Jetpro Jetsprint Championship at Wanganui’s Shelterview water course was dominated by seasoned campaigners Richard Burt (Palmerston North), Baden Gray (Auckland) and David Stone (Bulls).Topping the times, defending Suzuki Super Boat champion Richard Burt brought cheers and clapping from the mainly family crowd as they basked in calm warm weather that included a brief shower for respite. Although the Palmerston North based undertaker said the result was hard work despite the nearly two second winning margin.
“Everyone has lifted their game and I guess while they didn’t have the perfect day I was able to set the time to beat.”
Although in the top-eight eliminations Burt had his wings clipped when Waitotara’s Duncan Wilson topped the table after what Burt described as a silly mistake on his behalf.
“I was too busy thinking about my engine and why it didn’t feel it was running right. Time wise we’re not going any faster – so I’ve been wondering what I need to do. So in that last run I had to put that behind me and just go for it.”
Wanganui local Leighton and Kelli Minnell made it through to the final cut after both current Australian Superboat champion Darryl Hutton and Duncan Wilson had errors in their top-four run-off’s.
With a time of 49.75 seconds from Minnell in the final, Burt made a clean finish to stop the clock at 47.23 seconds to top-score in his defence of the six-round series.
Auckland mortgage broker Baden Gray came out with a series of consistent runs to win the Scott Waterjet Group A class. In a field of 16 competitors, Gray and navigator Tanya Iremonger were on the pace from the first of five preliminary qualification circuits before the eliminations began. Defending class champion Bevin Muir and navigator Kathy Barker were surprise eliminations from the top-eight cut, allowing Gray and Taupo’s Reg Smith to shoot-out for the final.
Bulls team David Stone and Steve Greaves had a big jump on the rest of the seven boat Jetpro Lites field – the Tuicraft boat regularly three seconds ahead of any competition. Against Whangamata mechanic Ray Thompson and navigator David Toms at the final shoot-out, the defending class champions put in another clinical run to finish over four seconds ahead to claim the chequered flag.
However the vee-eight powered competition came complete with some crash action to entertain the sizable crowd. Wanganui’s Pat Dillon had navigator Steve Edmonds comfortably scared after his Suzuki Super Boat rolled on to its side before pirouetting and landing backward in the water channel. Attempting to continue, damage was largely superficial to the boat, however the bent exhaust system on his methanol powered boat forced a shut-down.
With four weeks to repair and prepare, the second round moves to the east coast venue near Featherston on 24 January.
For further information:
Lance Hastie
Media/PR – Jetpro Ltd
Phone +64 21 329 909
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