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[BOATS] World #2 for Triple X
by Sean Henshelwood
World #2 for Triple X Racing
2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships
Rnd#1 – Temora, NSW, November 21-22
Rnd#2 – Melton, VIC, November 28-29
Heading into the 2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships there were two great unknowns; one was the possible performance of Phonsy Mullan’s awesome 1600hp supercharged LS7 powered Unlimited Superboat, and two, was whether Triple X Racing’s Ted Sygidus could take the fight to arch-rival Slade Stanley for the Group A world title. In the end, both Triple X pilots failed to achieve their goals, whilst the team’s ‘quiet’ achiever, Darek Sygidus wrote himself into the record books after claiming the world vice-champions position in Group A during his rookie year; it was an incredible story.
To say Phonsy Mullan’s debut season in the Unlimited class was unpredictable would be an understatement. The renowned Melbourne performance specialist elected at the start of the season to undertake a project which few people had ever considered. Being a Chevrolet specialist, Phonsy chose the LS7 engine as the basis for his project and immediately added a high revving Pro-charger (a driveshaft mounted supercharger which allowed the team to lower the centre of gravity provided by the traditional top heavy weight of a standard blower). It started badly, his maiden event (the 2008 UIM World Championships in New Zealand) netting him an engine bay fire whilst it was being fitted, and an engine detonation of monumental proportions ending his challenge before it had begun [the engine failing during pre-event practice]. With a change of block supplier for the national championships, Phonsy again struggled to get maximum performance from the now more reliable combination, issues like power delivery, fuel pickup (and in one round, fuel tank size) and cooling all became obstacles.
“Look, I knew this would be a long-term project and to be honest, I didn’t think we’d be challenging the leaders at all during the season [at various times he was a podium contender], my main focus was the world championships, although sadly, I think we might have a few issues here too as well.”
What Phonsy was alluding too was the fact that he’d discovered some valve damage immediately after rebuilding the engine which had failed on him during the penultimate round of the Continental Tyres national championship round and that the parts had not been made available from the US in time for Temora.
“One of the boys made it up on Saturday with the parts flown in from the States that day,” Phonsy acknowledged. “We worked all night to change the valves and then the driveshaft between the procharger and the engine broke, so the only timed lap I got was without the supercharger attached; not what I was hoping for.”
Whilst Mullan left Temora empty handed, the Group A team of Ted and Darek Sygidus were on top of the world, the duo both making the top six, before Ted pushed Slade Stanley all the way to the final run, eventually falling just half a second shy of victory. “And all on a track I don’t like all that much,” he grinned. “Now it’s on to Melton and my home-track; this one was advantage Slade, next one’s my turn, no more number two baby!”
Ted was deservedly rapt after an outstanding run, but frustrated nonetheless after almost making an error in navigation. He was even more annoyed after watching Stanley cross the line with what was clearly an engine failure; it made it, but only just…
“I reckon that error cost me about half a second, but we’ll never know. Right now it’s home to Melton and ready for a brand new Phonsy Mullan built engine, it will have some serious pace; we’ll be hard to beat there!”
By the close of the Temora round, Stanley held the points lead in Group A, but under UIM rules the points system was based on the finishing order of the weekend, leaving Ted just one point behind in second, and Darek just three points back in fifth. What a final round Melton would turn out to be!
It was on from the opening session, Ted setting the fastest time, his 48.527 over half a second faster than Stanley. He was on top of the world. “Number one baby, number one…”
By session two though, Stanley stepped up the pace, but Ted was mere hundredths slower. By the final round of qualifying though, Ted was back on top, turning a lap almost a tenth faster than Stanley’s best. He was looking the goods.
Further back, Dezi was doing everything he needed too to make the cut, ultimately qualifying fourth at the close of the five qualifiers. “That’s pretty good, but there’s more there yet,” he beamed.
By the close of the top 12 the brothers were holding positions two (Ted) and four (Darek), but all was not well.
“Somewhere water has gotten into the back of the boat and stuffed the rev limiter,” team-boss Phonsy Mullan confirmed. “They’ll change it and have it ready for Ted.”
Changed it was, fixed it wasn’t. Ted recording the slowest time for the top six eliminations - his weekend was run.
As he pulled onto the trailer you could see the devastation in Ted’s eyes, he was shattered. “At the end of Dezi’s [Darek] top 12 run we found a problem with the rev-limiter and we thought we’d fixed it for my run. I knew when I got to the first corner that it was over, but I pressed on. It’s devastating, we were so close. We’ve fixed it now, so it’s down to Dezi to go out there and beat Slade for me. I know he can do it,” Ted shrugged.
And he very nearly did. As was the case at Temora, Stanley’s engine gave up the ghost as he crossed the line in the final, having gone all out to top Darek’s time which was an outstanding seven tenths faster than his top six time. For Stanely, he went slower, but it was still good enough for victory; the margin, just 68 one thousandths of a second.
“I gave it everything I had,” Dezi admitted, “because I wanted to make up for Ted missing out. I was shattered, he had the world title in the bag, and one little electrical failure just killed it. It’s a hollow result for me in a way because I was playing second fiddle to Ted, it was his chance. I knew I could do it [compete with Staney in the final], and I’m overjoyed to be second in the world in just my rookie year. It’s bad news for the rest of these guys now though, because there’s two Sygidus boys out there now challenging for wins; next time we’ll be one-two, this is just the beginning.”
Whilst the Sygidus boys celebrated, Phonsy reflected on what might have been.
“We went away and did some work and replaced the parts we so desperately needed after Temora. I had to laugh, the guys who sent me the drive for the Pro-charger admitted that there was an issue with them, and they sent me a replacement, it’s a pity it wasn’t a week or two earlier,” he laughed.
“We showed potential at Melton, but again, we didn’t have enough testing time before the world titles and that cost us. This time it was an intercooler issue, we were just running too hot. From start to about twelve seconds we were probably the fastest thing on the water, but after that it would just shut down and we lost considerable power.”
Despite the disadvantage, Phonsy held on for a top six finish, although he was lamenting what might have been.
“I said from day one this would be a long term project. Finally it seems we’re on the right track, and as we settle one issue, another one arises, but now we’ve had about every drama that we could expect, so it’s a matter of doing some serious testing and preparing for next season because I think once we’ve got it sorted, we’ll be a very serious contender.”
With the Australian season now over, focus now turns to some much needed R&R after a hectic end to the year, the opening round of the 2010 season not scheduled until March 20-21 back at Temora.
You can catch all the action from the 2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships on SBS Speedweek and FOX Sports 'Inside Speed' (check local guides and keep an eye on www.v8superboats.com.au for dates and times). Also visit www.speedweek.com.au for clips of events.
Triple X Racing are proudly supported by; GM Race Engines, GM Motorsport, SGA Engineering, Ripshift, D.G. Parsons Transport, Gill Engineering, Sign Perfection, Showcase Constructions, Leggett Crane Hire, Tom Matthews Accounting and Big Benna Events.
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2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships
Unlimited Superboat
Championship points (points after two rounds of two)
1. Peter Caughey (80), 2. Daryl Hutton (77), 3. Nathan Pretty (76), 4. Dean Finch (73), 5. Mick Carroll (70), 6. Leighton Minnell (67), 7. Duncan Wilson (66), 8. Jamie Welch (65), 9. Tony Giustozzi (64), 10. Pat Dillon (61), 11. Andrew Page (60), 12. Phonsy Mullan (57), 13. Louise Dixon (56), 14. Peter Freckleton (55), 15. Adam Raverty (53), 16. Jody Ely (52), 17. Richard Burt (51), 18. Cheryl Welch (50), 19. Paul Burgess (46)
International Group A (400 Class)
Championship points (points after two rounds of two)
1. Slade Stanley (80), 2. Darek Sygidus/David Gill (75), 2. Reg Smith (75), 2. Brooke Dixon (75), 5. Ted Sygidus/Kelsie Gill (74), 6. Shaun Dixon (69), 7. Jake Garlick (68), 8. Chris Farr (64), 9. Greg Mercier (62), 9. Bevin Muir (62), 11. Rohan Smith (58), 11. Baden Gray (58), 11. Andrew Guthrie (58), 14. Daniel Walton (55), 15. Robert Colman (54), 16. Chris Bollins (49), 16. Mark Garlick (49), 16. Tremayne Jukes (49), 19. Rodney Krause (44), 20. Damian O’Leary (42), 21. Brooke Lucas (39), 22. Mick Manini (38), 23. Chris Kent (37), 24. Greg Harriman (34), 25. Kevin Laugesen (32), 26. Phil Wheelans (30), 27. Blair Gibbard (27), 28. Alan Carr (25), 29. Shane Loughnan (24), 30. Darryl Squires (22), 30. Kieran Krause (22)
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