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[BOATS] Caughey tops day one at Melton
by 321Ignition Magazine
2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships
FINAL - McPherson Park, Melton, Victoria
November 28
Caughey tops dramatic day at Melton
New Zealand’s Peter Caughey has recorded the fastest time during the opening day at Melton’s second round of the 2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships.
Whilst the five-time world champion’s speed has affirmed his favouritism to take out another crown tomorrow, the Total Racing team driver looked far from invincible as he took wrong turns in two of his four laps (today’s schedule included two practice laps and two timed runs).
He later refuted suggestions by rivals that he was ‘foxing’ ahead of tomorrow’s title deciding runs.
“Unfortunately our mistakes today meant we didn’t get to learn what we wanted to learn”, he said firmly. “There were sections of the course that I thought we could pick up time, and in the end we didn’t get as many runs as we’d have liked. Hopefully we can have clean runs from here on.”
The man most likely to upset Caughey’s campaign, Australian Nathan Pretty, managed the second fastest time, just over half a second off the pace. Pretty too struck trouble during the day, with a mechanical issue bringing the iconic True Blue Racing boat to a sudden halt in its second practice run.
“I’m pretty sure it was just an electrical fault,” Pretty admitted afterwards. “I went into the first real turn and had just finished turning when the engine flamed out, so I just spun, but it could have been hairy.”
The most dramatic story of the day however belonged to newly crowned Australian Unlimited class champion Daryl Hutton. Having lost control of his 1100hp boat ‘Hooters’, Hutton and navigator Yvonne Maxwell were passengers as they ‘surfed’ their way across an earth embankment, before continuing up a tyre wall and coming to rest in the metal catch fencing.
The incident sent track marshalls scattering for cover, with one of them becoming briefly trapped under the stricken vessel. Thankfully he was able to be freed and there were no major injuries, with the Hutton team planning on returning to action tomorrow morning.
Australian drivers Dean Finch and Phonsy Mullan look set to battle out a spot in the prestigious ‘final three’ shootout tomorrow afternoon, having set the third and fourth fastest times today respectively.
Finch had a troubled practice earlier in the day, with the crowd pleasing ‘Loose Cannon’ Stingray seemingly spending more time out of the water than in. “It’s still not quite right,” Finch reflected, “but I think we’ll be right tomorrow. At least it steers now, from hereon it’s just a matter if tuning.”
Meanwhile in the Group A class, Australian Champion Slade Stanley topped the times again, but this time by less than half a tenth of a second over local star Triple X Racing’s Ted Sygidus.
Stanley began the day tentatively, having ended the last round at Temora with engine problems due to ingesting water. His boat ‘Hazardous’ experienced more engine problems today, although they were not enough to keep him from his familiar top spot, the team discovering a timing issue post round one, and they were quickly back to speed by round two. There is still some residual concern that the Temora incident may have done more permanent damage to the powerplant, although with engine builder Brian Cassar (MOE Engines) at hand for the weekend, Slade will have all the help he needs to defend his position at the top of the points table.
“We decided not to run the bigger air intake on the boat today, after what happened last weekend”, commented Stanley. “Still, the engine was off-song during our first qualifying run. It just wouldn’t pull maximum revs, it must have been down 300rpm or so. Thankfully we could rectify the problem before our second go.”
Whilst Stanley and Ted Sygidus were always expected to figure at the pointy end of the Group A field, one driver who surprised everyone at Melton was Ted’s younger brother Darek, the third member of the local Triple X team claiming third by the close of todays proceedings to set up an exciting final day of competition.
Earlier in the day, competitors debated the length and difficulty of the chosen Melton layout, which eventually led to an amendment to the course after the first practice runs had been completed. This dropped the lap times by about ten seconds, and significantly reduced the amount of drivers taking wrong turns during their runs.
SBS Speedweek Unlimited Superboats
(after round two of qualifying)
1. Peter Caughey (NZ) - 43.998
2. Nathan Pretty (VIC) - 44.602
3. Dean Finch (NSW) - 45.752
4. Phonsy Mullan (VIC) - 46.848
5. Jamie Welch (WA) - 47.250
6. Tony Giustozzi (SA) - 47.261
7. Leighton Minnell (NZ) - 48.090
8. Adam Raverty (VIC) - 48.335
9. Cheryl Welch (WA) - 50.299
10. Louise Dixon (VIC) - 50.656
QTR Tyre Professionals International Group A
(after round two of qualifying)
1. Slade Stanley (NSW) - 47.417
2. Ted Sygidus (VIC) - 47.466
3. Darek Sygidus (VIC) - 48.382
4. Rohan Smith (VIC) - 48.783
5. Andrew Guthrie (NZ) - 48.972
6. Reg Smith (NZ) - 49.225
7. Bevin Muir (NZ) - 49.498
8. Rodney Krause (49.668)
9. Greg Mercier (49.734)
10. Robert Colman (49.838)
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