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[BOATS] Carroll, Stanley, Garlick storm Griffith
by Sean Henshelwood
(Archived)
Action intensifies over Easter at Griffith
Rnd#3 2009 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships
Lake Wyangan, Griffith, NSW
April 10-11, 2009
So far the 2009 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships has provided some outstanding action; in round one at Melton not one Superboat finished the final round, at Temora a completely rejuvenated venue saw some of the top drivers fall out of contention heading into the final, whilst at Griffith, the competition was hotter than ever, with mere hundredths of a second separating title contenders – it was another one for the history books..
42 drivers were entered for Griffith, one of the best fields Griffith has ever seen, and the record local crowd proved just how popular Jetsprinting is becoming. The event format was again two days, with Easter Friday scheduled for practice and two qualifying rounds. As was expected the pace-setter on day one was former world champion Slade Stanley, the Wagga local having designed the 23 corner configuration..
“A lot of drivers were concerned heading into Griffith, especially after the carnage we had last year which wrecked a couple of boats and all but stopped the careers of Kim Lucas and Teresa Southern. I studied the layout pretty intently and drove it a few times to make sure it was safe, and I think it’s petty good. We’ll see what happens, but with any luck it will give me an edge over Nathan..” Stanley grinned.
“Griffith is a matter of survival,” AUS#2 Greg Mercier added. “You don’t come here so much looking for a strong result as you do making it through to Sunday with a straight boat..”
With two wins under his belt in two rounds, the biggest surprise at Griffith was the lack of pace shown by Unlimited Superboat points leader Tony Giustozzi. “I don’t really know what’s wrong,” Tony shrugged. “I’ve never been a big fan of Griffith, and my pace is off. I’d love to just go out there and conquer the bastard and show it who’s boss, but Mick [Carroll] has done so much work this year on the boat and is well in contention for the title too, so I don’t want to jeopardise his championship if I wreck the thing.. We’ll see what happens.”
Despite just ‘dialling’ themselves in during Friday night’s opening qualifiers (neither of which provided teams with points), the timesheets provided a pretty good indication of what to expect on ‘money’ day.
In Superboats the battle early was between Carroll and Daryl Hutton, the pair separated by just three one thousandths in the opening round, and a ‘massive’ 74 one thousandths in session two.. “It’s going to be tight,” Mick grinned..
Whilst Carroll and Hutton battled in Superboats, it was actually Slade Stanley who was the fastest boat on the water early, but despite that early advantage, reigning world champion Nathan Pretty was hot on his tail, the pair separated by just under two tenths of a second by the close of competition on Friday night.
In the 350 Class too the result was to be expected, but what wasn’t expected was the pace of Conti-Racer’s Chris Bollins, the Queenslander hanging on to a close third behind fellow Stingray pilot Brooke Lucas, and Mark Garlick. “The boat feels fantastic,” Chris admitted, “it gives me so much confidence and we just get faster with every session..”
The big surprise for Friday though was the lack of pace from points leader Jake Garlick.. A wrong-way in the opening qualifier and a lap some two and a half seconds slower than Lucas in session two suggesting something wasn’t quite right.. “I’m just settling in, that’s all. I made a mistake on the track direction first up.. I thought I had it, but clearly I didn’t, so second time out it was all about getting that right..”
Saturday dawned bright and sunny, with conditions matching those on Friday, fortunately forecast showers failing to eventuate. A midday display in Griffith’s main street started proceedings, with the third round of qualifying signalling the start of the point scoring rounds and some serious lap times..
The 350 Class kicked off the day’s competition with Mark Garlick setting the pace clear of Brooke Lucas and son Jake. By round four Jake had settled into a rhythm stopping the clock with a 43.245, four tenths faster than the ‘old man’ with Bollins hanging on to third. Brooke Lucas sadly became the first casualty of the day after clipping submerged barrels in the speed bowl at the bottom of the circuit which forced him into the pit entry retaining wall. Undeterred he continued on but discovered the bend in the hull from the second contact had altered the steering forcing the reigning champ hard into the start line tyres just 20 metres later.
“I thought I had it,” Brooke admitted afterwards as he surveyed the dent in the left side of the boat. “It was the same line I drove earlier and last night, but the water level has dropped marginally and it just grabbed me and pulled me off line. It’s disappointing to have bent the boat just two events in from its debut, but we’ll see if we can fix it and get it ready for the finals..”
Fortunately he did, but the damage had been done Brooke failing in the end to make what would have been a certain appearance in the top three. By the final round of qualifying though it was all Jake Garlick at the top of the timesheets, but to the surprise of many, it wasn’t father Mark who was holding down second spot, Chris Bollins moving to within two tenths of a second of the junior sensation heading into the top ten final.
Nathan Dickenson was first out in the top ten, setting a benchmark of 45.490. Jake Garlick was next out and he put in a faultless run to improve the mark to a jaw-dropping 43.138. After some pretty serious repairs to his hull, Brooke Lucas was next driver on the water, his 44.505 though destined to keep him out of the three. Chris Bollins put in a nervous 44.174 and crossed his fingers as both Daniel James and Mark Garlick prepared for their run.. For James though his run would end within sight of the finish line after contact with tyres heading back towards the pit pool wall threw him off-line, teams in the pit pool surprised to see the nose of the Stingray Racing hull appear over the top of the retaining wall tyres.. “I don’t think there’s too much damage,” Stingray team-boss Tremayne Jukes admitted.. “It’s a pity, I reckon that lap he was on target for a top three..”
That left a relieved Bollins second, with Mark Galick the final driver to run, a 43.971 putting him into the final three, but a massive eight tenths off Jake.
As if to prove why he is so highly rated the young ‘Grumpy’ pilot dropped the mark to an inspirational 42.356 in the final, eight tenths faster again than his previous best.
Chris Bollins was second out, his clean 43.718 an improvement on his top ten time, but good enough for second after Mark Garlick could only manage a 43.940..
“I was pretty nervous heading into the final three,” Chris Bollins admitted afterwards, “but TJ [Tremayne Jukes] reminded me that the worst I could finish was third, so to go out and enjoy myself.. That was a great result, I can’t wait now though for Cabarita and a step up to the 400 Class..!”
After topping the timesheets on day one, it was clear Slade Stanley was going to be the man to beat in Group A (400 Class), no-one though told Nathan Pretty, the V8 Supercar pilot stopping the clocks with a 37.550 in round four, two tenths faster than Stanley.. “He’s really stepped things up,” Pretty acknowledged, “between us I don’t think there’s much more left.. I’m struggling a bit too with fuel starvation in the fast right-left direction change mid-run, the G-forces move the fuel around too quickly for a clean supply, and that’s costing us valuable tenths of a second, we’ll go away and work on it and see what we can do..”
Whilst the title contenders battled at the front, behind them there was an excellent stoush between former champion Rohan Smith, Ted Sygidus, Tremayne Jukes (still on Slade Stanley’s Hazardous), Greg Mercier and Brooke Dixon. Smith in the end got the better of the group to hold third into the finals, but with four boats within a second of his time, he was by no means a certainty for the final three..
Brooke Dixon was first boat out in the top ten, her 38.62 well over a second faster than her previous best and a solid benchmark for the boys to chase. Again Tremayne Jukes and Greg Mercier were unable to better the round two winner, nor Ted Sygidus, but Rohan Smith led the charge to the final three with a 38.540, Slade Stanley and Nathan Pretty also dropping below Dixon’s mark to force her to the bank for the final.
“I’m pretty happy with that,” she admitted afterwards. “This is a tough track, and my team-mate last year Teresa Southern had a huge crash in the top ten, so I was being pretty careful in that section of the track, but to improve by that much in the final run was good for my confidence around here.”
Smith was the first boat out in the final, and as the 350 competitors before him had experienced, the cooler evening temperatures had improved lap times by three to four tenths of a second, his 38.228 his best of the day. Stanley was the next boat out, the conditions suggesting that he would improve to a 37.4/37.5, but the points leader isn’t regarded as one of the best drivers in the world for no reason - his 37.019 a whopping eight tenths faster than his top ten time - the gauntlet had been thrown..
For Nathan Pretty it was all or nothing, he needed to find six tenths in his final run to take the win; it wasn’t there, a 37.240 suggesting that his top ten run was as much as True Blue Too was going to give him.. “That was awesome,” Nathan admitted later. “This is some of the toughest racing I’ve ever had, not just in Jetsprinting – in my whole career. I had nothing left, whatever Slade found it worked, he drove brilliantly and deserved the victory.. We’ll see what happens next time though with some new equipment, that might just swing the advantage back in our favour, but if he remains as consistent as he has been, it will be tough to take the title away from him..”
After an inconsistent run at Melton and a surprise stuck throttle at Temora, reigning Australian Superboat champion Phil Dixon came into Griffith looking for a return to form and after a conservative start, he found what he was looking for..
“This is the best the boat has performed in a long while,” the Temora promoter smiled.. Adding weight to his comment was his post-qualifying round best; 37.077, just two one hundredths slower than Daryl Hutton and eight one hundredths slower than Mick Carroll.
The big news though was the lack of pace shown by series leader Tony Giustozzi, the South Australian more than two and a half seconds off the pace back in ninth position, his five rounds consisted of two wrong ways and two 44 second plus laps..
“It’s win it or bin it,” he shrugged, “if Mick wasn’t in the title chase I could do either, but I’m having an off weekend so I’ll play it cool and see what happens in the top ten..” What happened surprised many people, but also showed the true nature of Giustozzi, ‘Mr Excitement’ leaving the line at half throttle and pulling in mind run..
Phil Dixon though wasn’t taking the conservative approach, the True Blue team-leader stopping the clock with an awesome 36.630 second lap, to that point the fastest lap of the weekend..
“That’s better,” he smiled, “we’ve been struggling with little things all year, but it seems to be coming together now, fingers crossed we can hang on till the final.”
Mick Carroll was third boat out and it was clear from the outset he was on a mission. At the first split the South Australian was up by three tenths of a second on Dixon, but by the finish line he’d all but lost the advantage, crossing the line to record a 36.612; just 18 one thousandths quicker..
Jamie Welch then jumped into third place with a 38.068, topping both Phonsy Mullan and Dean Finch, both of whom lost time in their final run.
Louise Dixon was next up, the reigning AUS#2 having stepped up her pace in qualifying to a best of 39.614, but she confirmed again that her motivation was to assist husband Phil, and with True Blue holding down the second fastest time she ran at a safe pace to record some more valuable series points.
The one boat though that could upset the scorecard was Daryl Hutton; complete with a freshened engine after two engine failures in two finals this year, Hutton was well and truly on the pace of the leaders and showed that again, turning a 36.949 second lap to join Carroll and Dixon in the final three.
Carroll was first out in the final, setting a 36.215 second lap, the fastest of the weekend. Phil Dixon was next out, his split time showing him three tenths down within the first third of a lap; by race end though he’d made most of that back up, but fell a frustrating 14 one hundredths of a second short.. He was still smiling at race end though..
“That was fantastic.. Full points to Mick for his efforts. We gained some very valuable data over the weekend which had we learnt during practice would have put us a lot further forward in the final. It’s a great result for the team though because we’ve been scratching our heads a bit this year and wondered what we needed to do to get back on the pace.. Now we know..”
For the quietly spoken Carroll though the result was just reward for his efforts over the season.. “I’m not sure what was wrong with Tony [Giustozzi],” he admitted post-race. “He’s more than capable of winning here, but I’m grateful that he gave me the chance to take the win. We’ve been working hard at this all year and are serious about the championship.. We’ll go away now and look at all the data and make some more changes because I’m tipping that whilst we’ve moved forward, that there’s a group of drivers at the next round that will have stepped forward themselves..”
Teams now enjoy a break before the next event – the opening round of the Queensland Championships set down for Cabarita (near Tweed Heads) on June 6-7. The penultimate round of the Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships will be held at Maryborough (Queensland) on September 5-6.
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2009 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships
Unlimited Superboats (drivers points after Rnd#3 of 5)
1. Mick Carroll/Yolanda Low (126), 2. Daryl Hutton/Yvonne Maxwell (125), 3. Phil Dixon/Ron Dixon (106), 4. Tony Giustozzi/Tahryn Matthews (102), 5. Dean Finch/Demi Finch (100), 5. Phonsy Mullan/Byron Basset (100), 7. Jamie Welch (96), 8. Cheryl Welch/Sandi Whalan (71), 9. Peter Freckleton/Jake Freckleton (62), 10. Louise Dixon/Casie Lack (59), 11. Paul Burgess/Darran Burgess (22), 12. Andrew Page/Megan Campbell (18), 13. Jody Ely/Peter McKeown (16), 14. Adam Raverty/Chris Pryse (15), 15. Glenn Roberts/Amanda Roberts (7)
International Group A (drivers points after Rnd#3 of 5)
1. Slade Stanley/Vanessa Wright (140), 2. Nathan Pretty/Austin Gill (135), 3. Rohan Smith/Owen Dyball (116), 4. Ted Sygidus/Kelsie Gill (106), 5. Tremayne Jukes/Ruth Webster (95), 6. Brooke Dixon/Leanne Rake (91), 7. Greg Mercier/Dorinda Mercier (81), 8. Robert Colman/Shane Stewart (77), 9. Darek Sygidus/David Gill (48), 10. Daniel Walton/ Brad Nicolson (37), 11. Mick Manini/Athena Dickson (28), 12. Simon Zarb/Peter Keep (18), 13. Greg Harriman/Adam Doyle (17), 14. Tony Whalan/Adrian Kemp (15), 15. Brendan Donnelly/Tyson Allen (10), 15. Shane Loughnan/Joe Manganaro (10), 15. Darren Watkins/Brad Saibura (10), 15. Damien O’Leary/Carly Nappa (10), 19. Rodney Krause/Kristy Hamilton (6), 20. Kevin Laugesen/Tiffany Parratt (5), 21. Kieran Krause (5)
350 Class (drivers points after Rnd#3 of 5)
1. Jake Garlick/Dem Garlick (140), 2. Mark Garlick/Kerry Garlick (130), 3. Daniel James/Andrew Phillips (108), 4. Chris Bollins/Aaron Morrisby (103), 5. Brooke Lucas/Nat Whalan (101), 6. Jamie Taylor (90), 7. Nathan Dickenson (88), 8. Darryl Squires (58), 9. Glenn Arundel (44), 10. Daryl Dickenson (42), 11. Troy McKenzie (33), 12. Robert Hallum/Pam Bulmer (24), 13. David Blake/Debbie Pitt (23), 14. Shane Allen (10)
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