[BOATS] Brooke Dixon wins for True Blue

by Sean Henshelwood

(Archived)


Heading into the second round of the Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships, True Blue Racing were not just faced with the job of combating some seriously competitive opposition, they were also chartered with the job of promoting and running the Temora event in their role as the venues new owners.

Brooke Dixon takes fairy-tale win for True Blue
Rnd#2 2009 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships
Lake Centenary, Temora, NSW
27-28 March, 2009

Heading into the second round of the Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships, True Blue Racing were not just faced with the job of combating some seriously competitive opposition, they were also chartered with the job of promoting and running the Temora event in their role as the venues new owners. Having narrowly missed the cut at Melton, Phil Dixon was desperate to get back into the groove, and Temora would be the place to do it. Nathan Pretty had crashed True Blue Too at Melton, but left the round on top of the points, he too was looking to make amends, yet despite all their efforts and a frightening full-throttle ride for Phil in the top ten shootout that ended in a high speed spin, it was the junior member of the Dixon family, Brooke, that brought home a popular win for the team at Temora.

Immediately after the season opener at Melton, the True Blue team took delivery of a new Sprintec hull for Brooke Dixon from multiple-world champion Peter Caughey’s New Zealand factory. Sadly it had been delayed after it was sent by mistake to Sydney and not Melbourne, so the team fast-tracked repairs to Brooke’s boat after Nathan’s off-track excursion and had it ready in time for the Temora round. Crew chief Colin Parish also did some diagnostic work on True Blue’s awesome injected small-block and addressed the lack of fuel pressure discovered after Melton.

“The data showed our fuel pressure was down by about 50%,” Phil confirmed. “It just didn’t have the sniff that it usually has.

Parish also discovered an electrical fault that had impacted the spark to one cylinder. “It looks like there has been an issue with a exhaust sensor shorting out the number four plug lead,” Col explained. “It was something that wasn’t obvious on the MoTeC or on a visual inspection of the cylinder, so with that fixed and full fuel pressure, we should be right.”

From Phil’s opening few runs it was clear there was an improvement, in fact by the close of the opening day of qualifying, the True Blue team boss was holding down third just two tenths off second, with Louise also inside the top ten in the 14 boat field.

By Saturday afternoon though they had dropped back down the field despite some lengthy assistance from the visiting Peter Caughey. “Some of these guys are really pushing the envelope now,” Phil said. “Look at Excalibur for instance, they’ve got some serious horsepower and they’re getting it to the water perfectly. We’ve got the same boat, but we just don’t seem to have the power to match them.”

Adding weight to his argument was the final qualifying places; Excalibur 1-2 (Giustozzi 42.587, Carroll 43.073), Phil back in sixth with a best of 44.413. Louise though had improved to a 46.941 for eighth place, but she admitted that her focus wasn’t entirely on racing.. “When we had a delay at one point whilst I was on the dummy grid, all I could think about was whether I’d left enough change at the gate for ticket sales,” she shrugged. “I suppose that’s part and parcel with being the promoter..”

By finals time though things started to heat up, but for all the wrong reasons..

Phil was first out and in front of a huge local crowd, he pushed to get himself on the podium, a cracking 44.140 looked the goods, but as he went for the spin out pool at the end of the run he realised that the engine wasn’t backing off power. As he feverishly tried to kill the engine, he raced back through the pit pool at unabated speed and back up the front straight. Whilst onlookers sat stunned at what they were watching Phil put True Blue into a high speed spin at the top of the track, the engine though still running..

“During the second half of my run I could feel something wrong, the engine seemed to be leaning out a little, but as I went into the spin out pool, the throttle cracked open full,” Phil admitted afterwards. “I pumped on the throttle, and turned off the ignition, but the compression kept it firing. I thought ‘oh hell’ what now and elected to head for a flat bit of grass up the back of the track and throw the boat into a spin.. What we discovered in the end was that a trumpet sucked in a bit of towel and jammed the butterfly and therefore the throttle full open. It was a hell of a ride..”

Fortunately for the team, a pre-race modification to the rev-limiter saved the big injected V8. “The boat was skipping about a lot on the water,” Col Parish confirmed, “so we dropped the limiter back to 6200 in case it free-revved too much. I’ve had a look at it and there’s no damage to the engine, just the jet unit which was spinning hard with no water running through it – it’s a relatively easy fix though, so we’ll be ready for Griffith, no troubles at all.”

In the end, Phil’s run saw him place fourth after both Excalibur drivers and Daryl Hutton posted sub-44 second laps.

For Louise too it was a trying experience, as she was forced to run the boat in the dying stages of the top ten, admitting that she held some concern that the boat may suffer a similar problem.

“I have to admit that when Phil drew P1 for the top ten I thought that if he was knocked out of the ten before it came to me that I would have a serious go knowing that he didn’t need to drive it again. After his off though, all I could think about was whether the same thing might happen to me because we didn’t know exactly how bad the damage was, so my run was pretty conservative..”

In the end both True Blue drivers made the top ten, with Phil amassing enough points over the weekend to be classified equal third and Louise tenth.

Nathan Pretty was keen to make amends for his top three finals crash in Group A at Melton and quickly jumped to the top of the points table by the close of qualifying, in the end, he was out-qualified just once by arch-rival Slade Stanley. Heading into the top ten, he too suffered an unusual event..

Brooke meanwhile had been quietly moving up the leaderboard throughout the weekend, and by the top ten put in her best run of the weekend to be mere hundredths behind 2002 champ Rohan Smith in second place as both Stanley and Pretty lined up for their runs.

Stanley was the second last boat out, and Brooke held her breath as he struggled around the circuit with a fuel pickup problem. That put her into the final three, but little did she know she’d be classified second fastest after her world-champion team-mate also failed to make the cut..

Nathan was fast out of the box and cutting some seriously quick lines, but half way through the lap he appeared to cotton off the throttle and miss a turning point. He slowly returned to the pits to a stunned crew.. “Half way around the lap I caught some ducks out of the corner of my eye and felt I’d almost hit one.. For a split second it took my attention off the track, and I missed a turn. I’m devastated..”

“I’d noticed all the ducks at the circuit when I first turned up on Wednesday,” Col Parish added. “I wondered then whether we’d have a problem, but little did I expect it to affect Nathan. He concentrates so hard on what he does, and a slight loss of attention at that speed can put you metres off line, and that’s all it takes..”

Classified second heading into the final, Brooke knew that this was her chance, but she couldn’t have predicted what she’d see whilst waiting for her final run. Sitting in the boat preparing for her final, she witnessed Phil’s top ten run that ended so aggressively at the top of the circuit..

“I nearly fainted when I saw that,” Brooke admitted. “When I saw Dad come through the spinout pool at full throttle I knew what had happened, and my heart was in my mouth. I was so nervous going into that last run, partly because I didn’t really know what had happened and wondered whether it might happen to me. I tried to put it out of my head and just concentrate on my lap.”

Tremayne Jukes was first driver out in Stanley’s Hazardous, the Stingray boat manufacturer turning in a tidy 45.678. Brooke then started her run, which appeared cautious at the start, but soon turned into a blinder, her 45.056 her quickest run of the weekend. The whole True Blue team held it’s collective breath as Rohan Smith set off for his lap. It looked quick, but at the end, a 45.146 wasn’t quick enough.. The pits erupted, and so too did the big Temora crowd.. After the dramas that befell both Phil and Nathan, no-one would have predicted this outcome, and no-one was more proud than Phil.

“That’s fantastic, I couldn’t have dreamed up that result,” Phil said with tears in his eyes. “We’ve all worked so hard this week to be ready for this round, and to come away with a win for Brooke is just a fairy-tale end to what has been an up and down weekend for our team..”

From Brooke’s perspective she was rapt, and full of praise for team-mates Burns and Pretty. “Having those guys as team-mates is brilliant,” Brooke agreed, “Nathan helps me with my driving and Lincoln just keeps pushing me and motivating me, I can’t thank them and Leanne (navigator Leanne Rake) enough, it’s been a great weekend and a great result for all the team.”

You can catch all the action from round two of the 2009 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships on SBS Speedweek on April 5 (2:00pm EST - check guides) and on FOX Sports 'Inside Speed' on April 8 (8:30pm EST - check local guides for confirmation).

The True Blue Racing team now prepares for the third round of the 2009 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships scheduled for Griffith in central-western NSW over the Easter weekend (April 10-11).

True Blue Racing are proudly supported by; Auspro Logistics, Parish Automotive, H2O Full Throttle Magazine, Lake Eildon Marina & House Boat Hire, Alexandra Freighters, Mansfield Express, Symes Transport, Action Smash Repairs (Wangaratta), MoTeC, Sprintec, North-East Windscreens, 321Ignition Magazine and SKIN Industries.

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2009 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships

Unlimited Superboats (points after Rnd#2 of 5)
1. Tony Giustozzi (88), 2. Daryl Hutton (79), 3. Mick Carroll (78), 4. Dean Finch (70), 4. Phil Dixon/Ron Dixon (70), 6. Phonsy Mullan (66), 7. Jamie Welch (60), 8. Peter Freckleton (43), 9. Cheryl Welch (42), 10. Louise Dixon/Casie Lack (38), 11. Paul Burgess (14), 12. Andrew Page (10), 12. Jody Ely (10), 12. Adam Raverty (10), 15. Glenn Roberts (7)

International Group A (points after Rnd#2 of 5)
1. Slade Stanley (91), 2. Nathan Pretty/Lincoln Burns (88), 3. Ted Sygidus (76), 4. Rohan Smith (75), 5. Tremayne Jukes (68), 6. Brooke Dixon/Leanne Rake (63), 7. Robert Colman (50), 8. Greg Mercier (46), 9. Darek Sygidus (39), 10. Daniel Walton (22), 11. Simon Zarb (18), 12. Greg Harriman (12), 12. Mick Manini (12), 14. Brendan Donnelly (10), 14. Shane Loughnan (10), 14. Darren Watkins (10), 14. Tony Whalan (10), 18. Kevin Laugesen (5), 18. Damien O’Leary

www.trueblueracing.com






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