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[BOATS] The boat killer returns
by Sean Henshelwood
Griffith; the boat killer returns
Lake Wyangan, Griffith, NSW
4 April 2010
The 2009 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships saw competition reach new levels, seemingly intensifying with every round with few out of track excursions. At the opening round of the 2010 season at Temora just two weeks prior to the popular annual Griffith event, the competition took another step forward, with everyone wondering where it would end; the answer came quickly..
“You don’t expect a result at Griffith, you survive it,” Greg ‘Crusty’ Mercier famously quipped to the media in 2009, and despite a weekend where only a couple of drivers came out of the water and there were no boat destroying accidents as had been the case in 2008, teams were still wary heading into the second round of the Continental Tyres supported 2010 championship, and with good reason.
Friday started with the newly introduced DASH 4 CASH, this time supported by IGA Deniliquin, and from the outset, it looked like Griffith would be back to it’s notorious best despite teams following the course direction that proved so popular and successful in 2009.
“The water level is probably three to four inches too low,” former 350 Class champion Brooke Lucas observed. “What that means is that there’s a couple of inches, and up to six inches of the plastic barrels [which line the edges of the circuit] out of the water; that leaves the wash with nowhere to go and on this tight layout, you’re invariably going to come back across where you’ve been, the wash will be nasty.”
Sadly it didn’t take long for Brooke’s predictions to prove true, but fortunately for him, unlike 2009, he wasn’t one of the casualties.. By the close of the opening day the list of casualties included Tony Whalan (Y-Knot), Colin Bellert (Evil As) and Chris Bollins (Conti-Racer); all of whom would ultimately be forced to retire their mounts. Others to come out of the water included Brooke Dixon, Troy McKenzie and Daniel deVoigt, all of them however were able to return to the water and Saturday’s championship round.
At the close of the opening days competition [three qualifiers with all times aggregating to provide a list of the top five (350 and Unlimited) and top 10 (Group A), all fighting a shootout to provide a final three] the IGA Deniliquin DASH 4 CASH winners included Daryl Hutton over Jackhammer team-mates Adam Raverty and Jody Ely in the Unlimited class, with Rohan Smith defeating Ted Sygidus and Rob Colman in Group A.
In the 350 Class, the big news was the win by IGA Racing’s David Blake over a recovering Troy McKenzie and Daniel deVoigt. Such was the rate of attrition in the class that despite both McKenzie and deVoigt coming out of the water during their qualifying runs, they both still managed to make the final..
As the sun cleared the horizon on Saturday morning, the full extent of Friday’s damage became evident. Tony and Sandy Whalan suffered probably the most impressive accident, Tony leaving the water on the run into the notorious bottom pit corner, his boat hitting the tyres, leaving the water, then flipping roll-cage first up the high banked corner, spectators forced to take evasive action as the boat looked to clear the four metre high pit bank. Fortunately it didn’t, Y-Knot landing with a thud back onto the track where the Whalan’s emerged unscathed. As she extracted herself from the navigators seat the full extent of the damage hit Sandy Whalan and she displayed the kind of emotion with which so many competitors in this amazing sport experience; everyone watching could feel the frustration and disappointment and all are hoping this extremely passionate Superboat family will be back in action sooner rather than later.
Col Bellert was back at Griffith and pushing harder perhaps than he wanted, the Queensland veteran coming off a strong run in 350s at Temora [second] and looking to consolidate his championship position at Griffith, but he slipped up at the speed-bowl at the opposite end of the circuit, flipping up the bank and landing wrong side up. Col had been knocked around in the incident and was taken to hospital for observation, but released in time for Saturday’s competition. “The boat’s pretty bad at the back, but we’ll take it away and fix it as soon as we can; I don’t know how long it will take, but if the engine is okay and we can fix the spilt in the jet unit, we’ll be back for Cabarita in July.”
The final team contemplating what had been a pretty disappointing Friday was the Conti-Racer crew of Chris Bollins and Tremayne Jukes, Bollins assessing the cost of a high speed off into the pit corner which had also claimed the Whalans. “It’s pretty bad,” Jukes admitted afterwards. “The bottom has some pretty serious bends in it but we’re going to put it in the water and see what happens.” Sadly it was clear early in his run that the boat would in fact be put on the trailer, the Conti team clearly frustrated at retiring the boat early for the second round in a row.
Fortunately for the team, a new Stingray ‘Stealth’ hull was being prepared at Jukes’ Melbourne factory for a possible introduction during the opening round of the championship; they’d delayed it to ensure it was completed correctly, it will now be fast-tracked to be on the water in three weeks time at Cabarita for the opening round of the Queensland championships.
When it became apparent that Friday’s track conditions would be so treacherous, the AFJSA in association with the Griffith club agreed to add more water to the course, and pumps had been left on overnight to bring the water level up to where it had been in 2009. “It’s a lot different now to what it had been yesterday,” Phonsy Mullan agreed after his daily track-walk ritual.
“There’s going to be a lot of different lines taken today, but it’s certainly safer than it was, the water will now rush up the bank into the grass and dissipate the waves.”
As it happened, Mullan was right, things were very different, very few teams putting a foot wrong on Saturday, and the racing was back to its brilliant best.
In the 350 Class the big question was ‘where’s Daniel James’, the series favourite failing to threaten at all during Friday’s IGA DASH. “We did some routine maintenance after Temora mid-week and discovered some oil fragments in the filter,” Daniel admitted, “so we did a mad dash to Melbourne to pick up Chris Bollins’ 350 engine from last year to bolt it in; that was 3:00 Friday morning... The problem was though we bolted our carbie in because we had all the linkages right, but we just couldn’t get the two of them to mate and two of our runs we didn’t get any further than the start before it started to cause pickup issues. We worked on it overnight though and we’ll see what today brings.”
Another big surprise in the 350s was the improvement in performance of ‘Predator’, one team who was working to erase the memory of 2009 which often saw them returning home at the close of practice. “We had a pretty tough year,” Shane Allen admitted. “But we did some work over Christmas and discovered that our block had some hairline cracks in it which was ultimately cost us every time we thought we’d fixed it. We got a new block and it seems to be working well.”
So well that the Predator duo were looking at the top of the timesheets on Friday prior to an off for McKenzie which saw the boat sitting on its side on an island. “It’s okay, I was just pushing hard and slipped up the tyres, there shouldn’t be any dramas though.” Fortunately for the Victorian team, there weren’t and they recovered to make the podium; on both days.
In the end, come the close of qualifying, the top six included Saturday DASH 4 CASH winner David Blake, team-mate Robert Hallum, James, McKenzie, deVoigt and a surprised Shane Andrew who was still running in his engine!
One exclusion who looked certain of a start was former Formula 2 off-shore sensation Matt Selby who was making just his second start in ‘Swarfega’. Coming from a discipline where he was a regular outright contender, Mat and father Noel were on a steep learning curve, but were running in the top half of the class from the outset, and having a ball in the process. “Looks like we’ve dropped a valve,” Noel admitted with frustration. “It’s a pity, Matt was starting to get the feel for it, but we’ll be back, this is the best form of boat racing I’ve ever been involved in, it’s fantastic,” he beamed.
After a frustrating start to his weekend, Daniel James was back on track on points day and he top qualified for the top 12 elimination final, but dropped back to second by the close of the top six to qualify for the final, just eight one hundredths slower than Blake.
In the final though it wasn’t just Blake he had to worry about, Troy McKenzie also making it through on the ‘Stingray Racing’ pilot. The margin of victory in the end - Blake setting a best of 45.403, some five seconds faster than his victory time from Friday, suggesting the raised water level was having a big effect on teams, McKenzie second, half a second in arrears with James falling just two one hundredths short of P2.
“We might have to complete the season now,” Blake quipped post-race. “Traditionally we only do the southern rounds, but we’ve emerged quite strongly on the points, so we’ll discuss doing the northern rounds..”
Whilst there was a shakeup in the 350s, Group A too was providing more than a little discussion with Rohan Smith stunning everyone with his pace. “Yeah, I have to admit I’m surprised too,” he admitted. “We didn’t think we’d be on top of this new boat so quickly, I honestly thought it would take a few rounds to get it up to speed, but it’s fantastic. I have to thank Steve Harrison and the team for working so hard to get it ready because we thought it was mission impossible.”
As was expected, round one standout Ted Sygidus set a strong early pace, but was shadowed by Smith heading to the finals. Brooke Dixon’s weekend started strangely, with a rare out of water expedition on Friday, fortunately without damage to the boat. “I just nicked the tyres,” she admitted afterwards, “but we didn’t hit anything solid. The boat’s okay..”
It did take a while for Brooke to regain her confidence, although she did make the top ten comfortably, however it was the names immediately ahead of her that caused the most discussion; P4. Robert Colman, P5. Brooke Lucas and P6. Greg Harriman. To be fair to Rob Colman, he has been a top five contender since the season kicked off, but for Lucas and Harriman, it was a great result. For Harriman, who looked like he would not make Griffith after suffering terminal engine failure at Temora, the result was clarification that he could be competitive after a lacklustre season in 2009.
“I honestly wasn’t sure how I’d go getting to Griffith,” Greg admitted, “but Greg Mercier came to the party and loaned me his ex-Ken Kesper Moe 410 for the weekend and we bolted my carbie and exhaust on and the boat has been magic. I’m really enjoying driving it,” he beamed.
At the completion of the first final, three 2010 wildcards were out, with Rob Colman (contact with the bank), reigning 350 class champion Jake Garlick and Darek Sygidus (wrong transponder) all missing the cut. Ted Sygidus again topped the timesheets, with Smith again shadowing him, whilst Brooke Dixon moved into third ahead of an elated Damien O’Leary who was driving with the frustration of watching his team-mate Daniel Walton fail to fire on the ramp after an electrical failure. “What can you do,” Walton grimaced afterwards, “two finals, two stupid little failures…”
Sygidus was on top again for the top six with Smith getting ever closer. Brooke Dixon retained third to make the final, whilst O’Leary claimed an impressive fourth just clear of Harriman and Mark Garlick who drove an exciting lap in a boat widely regarded as one of the toughest to handle in cross-wash. “It was exciting,” he laughed afterwards. “Actually, the track just didn’t suit our boat at all, so this is a pretty good result for us.”
As had been the case in the 350 class final, there was very little between the top three. Brooke Dixon’s 40.034 was slower than she would have hoped, but the big fight was between Sygidus and Smith. Smith went out first and set a blistering 39.119. It wasn’t his fastest run of the weekend but it was smooth. Ted was last out and he too set a strong lap, although perhaps not as smooth as Smith, The Triple X pilot stopping the clock an agonising four one hundredths off.
“What can you do,” he shrugged afterwards. “I tried, but I didn’t want to throw it away either. That result puts us back at the top of the points table, and we’ve got a straight boat and a strong engine, so all up it’s been a good result. Next time though I’m not going to settle for second.”
After his outstanding debut at Temora in the ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ Unlimited machine of Paul Burgess, Slade Stanley was back in the green and silver Mackraft after failing to get his usual mount ready in time. “I’m really thankful that Paul and Darran [Burgess] have given me this opportunity again, because there’s no way I could have fixed my boat in time, and I needed to keep my points ticking over till it’s ready,” Slade acknowledged.
During the DASH 4 CASH he was again quick, but elected not to push things too hard and jeopardise things for race day, a couple of runs affected by cavitation [air buildup in the jet unit, sometimes caused by heavy acceleration] all but ending his chances anyway.
From opening practice it was clear that the battle between reigning champion Daryl Hutton and Stanley that had waged since Temora was going to continue, the pair separated by mere tenths heading into the final; Stanley ultimately carrying the advantage with a best of 36.610, Hutton’s best just 15 one hundredths slower, but it was on a knife edge. “I thought I was going to die that time,” Jake Freckleton laughed after the final qualifier, such was the effort Hutton was putting in to keep in touch with Stanley.
Third was Mick Carroll, the reigning Australian vice-champion just over half a second off the leaders with Phonsy Mullan fourth, two seconds off Stanley and just clear of Greg ‘Crusty’ Mercier who was continuing to build on his new ‘firey’ reputation. This time it was caused by a leaky fuel tank caused in part by the flex in the boat twisting the mounting points and breaking welds allowing methanol onto the hot exhaust sparking a couple of fires early in the weekend. Once on song though, it was clear Mercier was capable of setting a strong pace. The other thing that was clear was that he wasn’t fazed by the increased pace of the Superboat class. “Bring it on,” he laughed..
Stanley again set the pace for the first qualifier, increasing his advantage to six tenths by the close of the top 12, Hutton eight tenths clear of Carroll and Mullan with the ever-improving Adam Raverty fifth in Jackhammer. Crusty held on for the final starting spot in the top six, just topping Raverty’s team-mate Jody Ely, the Melton duo beaming from ear-to-ear with the pace of their little Stinger. “We’re a long way behind in the performance stakes over these other boats,” Jody beamed, “it juts handles so well, it’s almost made for circuits like this. We just can’t wait to get our big engine for the second half of the season, then I’m sure we’ll be a serious contender..”
Sadly Raverty failed to make the final three after Stanley again set a blistering 36.162 to lead Hutton (36.701) and Mullan (37.471) into the final round of the night, however he did move himself into fourth in the championships, not a bad effort for his first full season in unrestricted form.
As they rolled out for the final, the huge Griffith crowd got to their feet. The track looked fantastic under lights, and all were anticipating something big, such was the battle that had emerged between the two reigning national champions; they weren’t going to be disappointed.
Mullan was first out and he set ‘RAMJET’ thundering around the circuit to record a consistent 37.616 second lap, all but matching his best time of the night.
Hutton was next and he knew he had to dig deep; his 36.991 was exciting, and a real display of sheer driving ability, but it was a couple of tenths shy of his best, but it was as good as he could do.
That brought Stanley to the line and the Wagga local set down a near perfect lap. It never looked out of control and was incredibly smooth – the time, an incredible 35.270, a full 1.7 seconds faster than Hutton.. The crowd cheered in excitement whilst Stanley’s peers in the pits looked on in sheer amazement at what might just have been one of the greatest runs in jetsprinting history.
Post-race, ‘Canberra Floorcraft’s’ Bill Holloway revealed the secret of Stanley’s increased pace. “We threw a bigger pulley on the supercharger and dialled in another 100 horses,” he laughed.
“What a handful,” Slade admitted afterwards. “You wouldn’t have thought it would, but that extra 100 horses completely transformed the boat and it was a little frightening in a couple of spots because it was so different to what it had been all day. I had to feather the throttle constantly because I could feel the blades starting to lose traction in the water, so it wasn’t easy, but it was a fun lap though.”
“How do you deal with that,” a surprised Hutton admitted afterwards. “That was just awesome. I might have found a tenth or two here or there, it was really on the edge, but I couldn’t have topped that. We’ll go away and have a good look at it and see what we can do for Cabarita, because we clearly need to find some extra power before then. Fortunately the boat isn’t running at full capacity, but Slade is really going to push us, and that’s exactly what you want when you’re running at this level.”
“I have to say I like these blowers,” Slade admitted, alluding to the supercharger mounted on the 400 cubic-inch Chev in ‘Canberra Floorcraft’. “I might need to talk to Moe [engines] about how I can get one of those on my new engine because the ability to just dial in an extra 100 horses could come in very handy..”
Focus now turns to the Queensland State Championships as teams head to Cabarita on May 1-2 for the opening round of the Continental Tyres Queensland Championships [five rounds]. The next round of the Australian Championships will get underway at the same venue on July 10-11.
You can catch all the action from the 2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat 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 footage from previous events.
The Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championship is proudly supported by; Continental Tyres and North Star Mildura Motors Mercedes Benz.
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2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships
Unlimited Superboat
Championship points (points after two rounds of five*)
1. Daryl Hutton (116 points), 2. Slade Stanley (116), 3. Greg Mercier (94), 4. Adam Raverty (87), 5. Mick Carroll (87), 6. Phonsy Mullan (81), 7. Andrew Page (74), 8. Jody Ely (73), 9. Paul Burgess (60), 10. Peter Freckleton (40), 11. Dean Finch (37)
International Group A (400 Class)
Championship points (points after two rounds of five*)
1. Ted Sygidus (95 points), 2. Rohan Smith (94), 3. Darek Sygidus (92), 4. Robert Colman (89), 5. Daniel Walton (79), 6. Brooke Dixon (72), 7. Mark Garlick (69), 8. Brooke Lucas (69), 9. Damian O’Leary (67), 10. Jake Garlick (57), 11. Mick Manini (49), 12. Greg Harriman (47), 13. Tremayne Jukes (28), 14. Rodney Krause (25), 15. Shane Loughnan (25), 16. Louise Dixon (24), 17. Kevin Laugeson (20), 18. Tony Whalan (20), 19. Chris Bollins (20), 20. Kieren Krause (10)
350 Class
Championship points (points after two rounds of five*)
1. Daniel James (113 points), 2. David Blake (107), 3. Daniel deVoigt (96), 4. Robert Hallum (87), 5. Shane Andrew (70), 6. Colin Bellert (64), 7. Matt Selby (60), 8. Troy McKenzie (54), 9. Glenn Arundel (43), 10. Shane Allen (35)
* championship points are calculated from the best four point scoring rounds (of five)
www.v8superboats.com.au
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