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[BOATS] A battle of attrition at Temora
by Sean Henshelwood
Temora; a battle of attrition
22 March, 2010
The 2009 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships raised the bar to an all-time high so far as the level of competition and the profile of the sport was concerned, so bettering it in 2010 was always going to be a big ask; it didn’t take long.
The new season dawned full of surprises; from a number of seasoned campaigners graduating to the next level, and the welcome addition of new teams, through to a revised event format and a whole new point scoring system, there was certainly a lot of interest around Temora’s season opener.
It didn’t take long for the emails to start, but it wasn’t the entry list, the format or the points system gaining most attention, rather the publication of the track length, something which would ultimately attract a lot of attention over the week leading up to the event.
“The way the track is numbered makes it look more complicated than it really is,” Temora track promoter and former Unlimited class national champion Phil Dixon pointed out. He was right, on day one of competition, during a new promotion called the ‘Dash 4 Cash’, just a couple of people made navigational errors, whilst the majority nailed it first time out.
Track direction though wasn’t the only thing to be nailed.. Before serious competition started there were three immediate withdrawals; most notable of those was Slade Stanley’s new Unlimited class entry, followed by Chris Bollins’ ‘Conti-Racer’ and sister boat, Brooke Lucas’ ‘Our Toy’.
The Hazardous team of reigning world and Australian Group A champion Slade Stanley was out after what had turned out to be a difficult week. “When we made the announcement that we’d progress to the Unlimited class, I always knew we’d struggle with the engine,” Slade admitted. “We couldn’t get a ‘full-blown’ Unlimited engine sorted till later in the year, so we elected to ‘tweak’ our Group A engine and found some more horsepower. Because we’re not restricted we made some changes to the carbie, and the fuel pump, and after picking the engine up at Moe (south-eastern Victoria) we drove it home to Wagga, put it in the boat then discovered a drama with the fuel pump, so Dad took it all the way back to check it. We changed it but it looks like the same thing has happened again; it also looks like we’ve got a hole starting to develop in the top of one cylinder, so rather than risk destroying what is otherwise a great engine, we’ll park it for the weekend.”
Typically when a reigning world champion is without a mount, offers are pretty close at hand, Slade announcing later in the day that he’d join the Canberra Floorcraft team of Paul and Darren Burgess to help them ‘sort’ their boat, and give Slade a chance to see if he might like to run their boat in the Australian points round (Sunday).
After putting the aging Mackraft within tenths of reigning Unlimited champion Daryl Hutton in just his second run, Slade thought he may just stay for Sunday’s competition. “Goes pretty good,” he beamed.
For Jukes and Bollins it was ‘game over’ for ‘Conti-Racer’. “It was running brilliantly,” TJ admitted after his second run, “but we noticed an oil leak around the filter, and when we pulled it off there were metal shavings inside, so we decided to park it before we struck any further drama.”
For Bollins it was a short run for the weekend, however TJ made an appearance, albeit briefly in Brooke Dixon’s 2008 World Championship winning boat (in the hands of Nathan Pretty), now renamed 321Ignition. Sadly, it too would expire before the Australian points round after setting some seriously quick times. “I don’t know why I got out of bed this morning,” Jukes shrugged.
Despite the carnage (which also eliminated AFJSA President Greg Harriman in ‘321 Ignition Magazine’ and 2008 Group A champion Phonsy Mullan in his Unlimited Superboat), a strong field lined up for the opening round of the 2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships and it was ‘on’ from opening qualifying.
With six of the top nine 350 class drivers (including the top four championship placegetters) progressing to 400s for 2010, the 350 class was all but open slather for this season; all with the exception of Daniel James.
James was clearly the pace-setter from opening qualifying as he had been during the Dash 4 Cash on Saturday, with Queenslanders Daniel deVoigt and Colin Bellert battling over the remaining podium positions.
In the end James was just too quick and too well sorted having campaigned the 2009 season with a number of podium finishes before doing the bulk of the ‘experimental’ work on the AFJSA’s L98 6-litre test engine [which was entered in the 350 class as a contender but not a points challenger; that program was also scrapped for 2010].
Daniel deVoigt like Col Bellert had made the decision to start the 2010 season ‘down south’ despite traditionally only campaigning the northern rounds, the duo planning to be regular podium finishers after the recent shuffle in entrants, and both were running strongly.
Coming into the finals it was deVoigt that looked to have the upper hand over Bellert, but it was a narrow margin and a slight run off line in the final dropped deVoigt’s time by half a second, Bellert meanwhile picked up a similar margin to switch the advantage and take a surprise national championship P2.
In 400s it really came down to survival, especially with the mounting casualties through the day. “Look these jet units are like dynos,” Col Parish, former AFJSA President and renowned engine builder explained. “They put terrific load on the engine. With a dyno during testing we load them up to maximum revs for maybe 10 or 15 seconds; today we’re doing laps over 50 seconds...”
“Our MoTeC data shows oil pressure as low as six psi,” Ted Sygidus added. “It’s only for a short period, but the way we’re changing direction around here, it will eventually become a problem and I think that’s why you’re seeing this occur. We’re lucky with the MoTeC because we can see it spike, so we’ve added extra oil to compensate, but honestly, I think it’s time we went to a dry sump because what we’re doing with the change of direction with these things now is insane..”
Whilst Ted had been quick on Saturday during the Dash 4 Cash, taking the first big cash prize for the year, it was 2009 Temora round winner Brooke Dixon who topped the opening round of qualifying mere hundredths faster than her arch-rival, with Daniel Walton a surprised third, marginally clear of Darek Sygidus.
“With assistance from Rohan Smith and Steve Harrison we made some major changes to the old Kryptonite Mackraft and it looks like we’ve transformed it,” Daniel Walton explained. “The hull has had a complete makeover, we’ve lowered the cage, moved the weight around and put in some new seats, and together with a bit more ‘sniff’ from Moe Engines, we’ve got a seriously good package.”
Another driver just off the podium, was Mildura ‘veteran’ Rob Colman. “If you’re going to show up, you may as well show up and have a good crack at it,” Colman quipped. And crack at it he was, fifth in the first two sessions, Rob improved to fourth by the final session, where he was joined by a new ‘B’ driver; Brooke Dixon.
“Our boat seems to have a problem too,” Brooke explained. “During Mum’s run, the engine started to go off, however she brought it home, but the team has decided to park it to be safe, and I’ll have a run with Rob.”
Sadly for Brooke her qualifying time in an unknown boat would keep her outside the top 12 despite setting the third fastest outright time in ‘True Blue Too’ [rules stipulating that you must set a top 12 time in the boat you will take into the finals] - her run at the podium was over.
Heading into the final 12 further news came of retirements, this time ‘Grumpy’, the reigning 350 Class champions diagnosing a spun bearing, so they too put the boat back on the trailer. At the time Jake was holding down sixth place, his best just 48 one thousandths faster than the old man..
Another to miss a start in the final was former NSW champion Rodney Krause, ‘Soak’n Fused’ developing terminal engine failure during son Kieran’s final qualifier, however unlike the Garlicks, the Wagga-based team towed their boat to the dummy grid to be classified a starter and gain an extra two points..
At the close of qualifying and with the mechanical failures, Kevin Laugesen and Mick Manini joined the final 12, but were eliminated at the conclusion of the first final. “We made the finals,” Mick grinned.
The biggest upset though was the name of the only DNF during the top 12 elimination final; Ted Sygidus.
As had happened during the world championship final at Melton last November, Ted was the pace; his best lap of 52.083 in the second round of qualifying, more than a second clear of brother Darek. In the top 12 though he was out early after a navigation error. “This issue with the oil pressure has been playing on my mind,” Ted admitted afterwards. “I had the track down no problem, but I just wasn’t thinking about it whilst I was out there. We still set the fastest time and got some good points, so we’ll just regroup ready for Griffith.
The final six included Darek, Rob Colman, Daniel Walton, Rohan Smith, Brooke Lucas and Walton’s team-mate, Damian O’Leary.
By the close of the final six, Darek was into the 52s and more than a second clear of Walton, with Colman third. Rohan Smith was disappointed to miss the final, but reflected on what had been a tumultuous fortnight.
“We took delivery of a brand new Stinger hull late last year and were planning to introduce it mid-season after we’d set it up properly and ironed out some bugs, but just two weeks ago it became clear that the ‘old’ BTS Racing machine wouldn’t be available to run the early rounds, so we crammed as much as we could into two weeks to be ready for Temora,” Rohan confirmed. “Honestly, we were still working on it last night having had to pull out of the Dash, so our first laps were Q1, and I had no real idea what to expect. It shows lots of potential and to have taken fourth first time out is a miracle because I was going to celebrate if we crept into the ten..”
Rob Colman was first out in the final, setting his best time of the weekend. Dan Walton then launched off the line, but slowed almost immediately. It was clear he still had power, but he was forced to return to the pits at idle, with the throttle cable having broken; in the end, he would place third. He was clearly frustrated but soon the realisation that he’d made the national championship podium after ‘just’ creeping into the top ten in 2009 hit him and the smile returned.
“I’m rapt, you have no idea,” he beamed afterwards. “I reckon I had second in the bag with the times I was doing earlier, so for such a little thing to take that from me, it’s frustrating, but I’m so proud of our guys that we could make the podium, it’s a dream come true.”
Rob Colman too was more than happy with the result, it had been a long time between drinks for the 2000 350 Class champion. “I’m stoked. We’ve been working away at it now for a couple of years, but with everyone stepping up I thought I should make some noise too and get my act together. This is a great result and sets up a great season ahead.”
There was commiserations in the Triple X camp for Ted’s demise, but celebrations for Dezi’s maiden Superboat victory. “I can’t believe it,” he grinned in trademark fashion. “It was bad luck for Ted, but that Phonsy Mullan built engine went the distance when so many others failed, and we just kept applying the pressure. We had a couple of little issues with the starter motor and the flywheel but we overcame that pretty quickly.
“For Triple X that’s a great start to the season and whilst I’ve got the jump on Teddy, I’m sure it won’t take him long to get back up front. It’s going to be a fantastic year!”
Whilst there was action aplenty in the Group A class, Unlimited Superboat promised a whole lot more.
Despite Stanley’s dramas with ‘Hazardous’, he showed immense talent behind the wheel of Paul Burgess’ ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ machine, something which younger brother Darran suggested was just the tonic the team needed. “Slade’s had a play with the setup of the boat, and not only has he taken almost seven seconds off Paul’s best, he’s also pushed Paul to the point where we’re going quicker than we ever have.. We’re having a ball!”
They weren’t the only ones, further down the pits, Mick Carroll was working with Phonsy Mullan to improve ‘Excalibur’ after Mullan’s renamed ‘RAMJET’ Unlimited boat expired during Saturday’s Dash 4 Cash.
“I’m actually enjoying this driving bit,” Phonsy grinned. “It’s nice not to be backwards and forwards fixing things, although I’d have to say, my arms are killing me because Mick sits right on top of the steering wheel and I can’t move the seat!”
After a stunning display between reigning Australian champion Daryl Hutton (Castrol EDGE) and former Australian Champion Dean Finch (Loose Cannon) during the Dash 4 Cash, the Unlimited class looked like being a two horse battle, although the sudden increase in performance of ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ threw a third boat into the mix.
The opening qualifiers were incredible. Finchy stopped the clock in the first session of the day with a 48.595 to top his Saturday best, whilst Hutton had the crowd on their feet after the steering wheel came loose (loose but not off) in his opening session, launching the Castrol EDGE boat into the air. Stanley kept improving the performance of ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ to get himself down to a 49.407 whilst Carroll and Mullan bettered former Group A #2 Greg Mercier who was struggling with a litany of problems, most notably, an onboard fire on day one.
“We’ve given new meaning to the word Crusty,” Greg Mercier laughed.
“Sadly despite our trepidation about methanol and the care I went to to replace all the parts in the fuel system with stainless steel, an injector line blew off in our first seriously hard lap and I could feel the heat in my arms, and when the engine started to miss a beat I knew what was happening. I immediately took to an island and told Mrs Crusty to get out pronto. I guess it was one of those things. We knew Group A backwards and upside down, but this is a whole new ballgame and we got caught. The damage was only relatively minor, so we had it back for the points round, but now we’ve got a persistent water pipe problem where it blows out on every run showering the engine in water. We’ll press on though. Fire first and now flood, geez this Superboat stuff is exciting..”
Despite his stunning opening round lap, the almost unthinkable happened to Finchy in his second run, the engine cutting out mid lap on what would have been an absolute flyer. Sadly on his return to the pits, two gaping holes in the bottom of the engine suggested the popular orange boat would not soon reappear.
“It doesn’t look good,” Finchy frowned afterwards. “We’ve been vigilant with checking data and keeping things maintained, but for some reason it’s let go. We’re still only at 75% throttle on average, so we’re not stressing it too much, not compared to say Hutto, but it’s just stopped.”
Finchy did reappear, but back behind the wheel of Andrew Page’s ‘Kamakazi’, as he had done during the 2009 season whilst waiting for his new twin-turbo powerplant to be completed. Sadly fate intervened with dramas off the line on Finchy’s final run dropping him to the bottom of the timesheets, from there he elected to step out and help Pagey through to his first top six elimination final.
With Finch gone the battle came down to four, with ‘Az U Do’ moving into the frame alongside Stanley, Hutton and Carroll, although four soon became three after ‘Excalibur’ suffered a starter-motor failure leaving Mick Carroll unable to start the top 12.
Starter-motor issues almost caught Jody Ely and Adam Raverty in ‘Jackhammer’, the Melton duo putting in an outstanding effort during day one, Adam making the final of the Dash 4 Cash, and running around in the tail of the top five. Unlike Carroll they managed to fire the engine for the top 12, with Adam qualifying an outstanding fourth behind Hutton, Stanley and Mercier.
Typical of the way the day had panned out, Andrew Page and Peter Freckleton also made the final six, whilst Jody Ely and Paul Burgess failed to make the cut; it wasn’t the end for either of them though as they both sat eagerly by watching their ‘B’ drivers work their way towards the final three.
There was rejoicing in the ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ team as Stanley finally topped Hutton in the top six elimination final; it was the smallest of margins, but it was a win nonetheless and nobody could deny the cheers and laughter coming from the Canberra-based crew. Crusty was a distant (in relative terms) third, but more than a second clear of Raverty, Page and Freck.
Three became two after Crusty pulled out mid-run in the final, their waterpipe issue forcing the popular Victorian to park the boat and be ready to fight another day. “What a hell of a weekend,” he beamed afterwards. “I was hoping we would make the podium, but I didn’t expect to do it like this. One thing I’ve learnt though, is that there’s a lot more to learn with this Superboat gig..!”
Hutton was out next, the reigning Australian champion throwing everything at it to post a stunning 48.627. Stanley was last next and the entire pits stopped to watch the reigning Group A world champion put ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ into a position that few people expected it would ever be; in outright contention. He was down just over a tenth at the first split and fell an agonising three tenths short of Hutton’s time at the line, after posting his best time of the day.
“That wasn’t bad,” he grinned casually. “We actually got it to handle pretty good in the end. There may have been another tenth or two in it, but I don’t think we’d have caught Daryl.”
From Hutton’s perspective he too was rapt, taking his first outright win on Aussie soil despite ending 2009 as AUS#1 and World#2. “I have to say I didn’t expect it would be ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ putting the pressure on in the final,” he laughed, “but that’s the nature of the sport. It sets up a brilliant season ahead. It’s a pity about Finchy, hopefully he can be back soon because once he gets that thing setup it’s going to make the fight at the top really interesting, but overall it’s been a great weekend for the Castrol EDGE boys, especially since the thing was just a hull a week ago, the boys worked around the clock to have it ready, so this is just reward!”
Teams now go away to regroup and in some cases, rebuild in time for round two of the Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships in just over a weeks time at Griffith over the Easter weekend (April 2-3).
The Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships are televised on SBS Speedweek (Sundays 1:00pm AEST) and FOX Sports Inside Speed (check guides for details). Details of the airing times for the Temora round of the 2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships will be published on www.v8superboats.com.au when available. Previous rounds of the championship are available to see via the internet 24/7at www.speedweek.com.au
Temora, March 20-21, 2010
[Rnd#1 2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships]
350 Class - Top 12 result
1. Daniel James (Stingray) - 61.317
2. Daniel deVoigt (DEVO 2) - 62.439
3. Colin Bellert (Evil As) - 62.595
4. David Blake (IGA Racing) - 63.897
5. Glenn Arundel (Twisted) - 68.207
6. Matt Selby (Swarfega/Premier One) - 71.582
7. Robert Hallum (IGA Racing) - dnf
8. Shane Andrew (Norstar) - dnf
350 Class - Top 6 result
1. Daniel James (Stingray) - 61.307
2. Daniel deVoigt (DEVO 2) - 62.147
3. Colin Bellert (Evil As) - 62.965
4. David Blake (IGA Racing) - 63.583
5. Glenn Arundel (Twisted) - 64.694
6. Matt Selby (Swarfega/Premier One) - 71.878
350 Class - FINAL
1. Daniel James (Stingray) - 61.409
2. Colin Bellert (Evil As) - 62.557
3. Daniel deVoigt (DEVO 2) - 62.619
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400 Class (International Group A) - Top 12 result
1. Darek Sygidus (Triple X) - 53.528
2. Daniel Walton (Kryptonite Racing - K2) - 53.757
3. Rob Colman (Tunn-A-Guts) - 54.559
4. Rohan Smith (BTS Racing) - 55.278
5. Mark Garlick (Grumpy) - 55.510
6. Jake Garlick (Grumpy) - 55.601
7. Brooke Lucas (Cool Bananas) - 56.195
8. Damian O’Leary (Kryptonite Racing) - 56.246
9. Kevin Laugesen (SpaNET) - 56.673
10. Mick Manini (Cool Bananas) - 56.696
11. Ted Sygidus (Triple X) - dnf
400 Class - Top 6 result
1. Darek Sygidus (Triple X) - 52.686
2. Daniel Walton (Kryptonite Racing - K2) - 53.864
3. Rob Colman (Tunn-A-Guts) - 54.749
4. Rohan Smith (BTS Racing) - 54.832
5. Brooke Lucas (Cool Bananas) - 55.954
6. Damian O’Leary (Kryptonite Racing) - 56.749
400 Class - FINAL
1. Darek Sygidus (Triple X) - 52.696
2. Rob Colman (Tunn-A-Guts) - 54.139
3. Daniel Walton (Kryptonite Racing - K2) - dns
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Unlimited Superboat - Top 12 result
1. Daryl Hutton (Castrol EDGE) - 48.876
2. Slade Stanley (Canberra Floorcraft) - 49.256
3. Greg Mercier (Az U Do) - 52.820
4. Adam Raverty (Jackhammer) - 53.130
5. Andrew Page (Kamakazi) - 53.563
6. Peter Freckleton (Castrol Edge) - 54.524
7. Jody Ely (Jackhammer) - 54.722
8. Paul Burgess (Canberra Floorcraft) - 55.276
Unlimited Superboat - Top 6 result
1. Slade Stanley (Canberra Floorcraft) - 49.290
2. Daryl Hutton (Castrol EDGE) - 49.393
3. Greg Mercier (Az U Do) - 51.872
4. Adam Raverty (Jackhammer) - 52.944
5. Andrew Page (Kamakazi) - 53.113
6. Peter Freckleton (Castrol Edge) - 53.259
Unlimited Superboat - FINAL
1. Daryl Hutton (Castrol EDGE) - 48.627
2. Slade Stanley (Canberra Floorcraft) - 48.943
3. Greg Mercier (Az U Do) - dnf
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