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[BOATS] TripleX; on target!
by Sean Henshelwood
TripleX; on target!
Triple X Racing - April 2010
2009 had been a mixed year for the ‘toughest’ team in V8 Superboats, and 2010 has so far proven frustrating for the boys from Melton. Last year the season dawned with Ted Sygidus primed and ready to tackle Group A after team leader and reigning Australian Group A champion Phonsy Mullan moved to the Unlimited Superboat class.
To Phonsy’s credit, he not only stepped into the sport’s elite category with the view of challenging the established stars, but through his successful aftermarket tuning business GM Motorsport, he took the approach of introducing an all new, never before tried engine combination, something which he was big enough to admit pre-season, would more than likely see him off the podium for the bulk of the national championships. It may have been a trial for the experienced motorsport competitor, but he didn’t stay off the podium for long, although by seasons end he’d endured more than enough grief from his new project, and missed many an opportunity through a lack of preparation time. “We’re just too busy with work,” Phonsy admitted more than once, “and really, what I’m trying requires some serious input on my behalf. To be fair though, we did strike some part failures out of the US, so that slowed development and cost us a chance of challenging during the world titles, but that’s how it goes sometimes..”
Prophetic words, and words which must have been ringing in Phonsy’s ears as he announced he would be unable to start the newly renamed ‘RAMJET’ for the opening round of the 2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships at Temora due to further part failures. “Look, we had ordered new parts from the US for the start of this year and they hadn’t arrived, so we were forced to fit old parts which we knew was risky and they let us down. The damage isn’t too bad, but we didn’t want to risk a major failure, so we’ve parked the boat, and Mick Carroll has offered me the ‘B’ drive in ‘Excalibur’ to keep my points alive,” he confirmed.
Whilst Phonsy’s start to the season was off to a less than ideal start, in the Group A camp, brothers Ted and Darek Sygidus were full of anticipation for the season ahead, with many rating the duo as the leading contenders for the title, especially after Darek’s world #2 ranking from the close of the 2009 season.
From the outset at Temora [March 20-21] it looked like the duo would firm up their favouritism, matched only by Brooke Dixon on the opening day of competition, the Swarfega/Premier One ‘DASH 4 CASH’. Ted cameout on top after dominating all day, with Brooke narrowly defeating Darek in the final for second.
On race day though the Triple X boys continued on their winning way, Ted dominating at the top of the timesheets, before amazingly making a navigational error in the top 12 to miss a certain finals berth. “There have been so many engine failures this weekend that I was starting to get paranoid about having a drama, and in the end, that caught me out, I just wasn’t 100% switched on for that run because I felt I had it down,” he shrugged with frustration. “Now it’s down to Dezi..”
And as he had done at the world championships, Dezi duly delivered, taking a much deserved maiden victory over Rob Colman and Daniel Walton in the final.
In the Unlimited class, Phonsy was all smiles after qualifying fifth, immediately behind reigning vice-champion and team-mate for the weekend, Mick Carroll. “It’s nice to just get in something and drive it without having to think about what’s working and what’s not..” he laughed. “I’m struggling a bit though, Mick’s a little bloke, and he likes to sit on top of the steering wheel, so I’m not 100% comfortable, but it’s going good, so I can’t complain.”
Despite both drivers comfortably making the cut for the finals, neither in the end would see the green flag after starter motor failure for Carroll on the ramp ended any chance of a podium finish to start off the year.
“Disappointing; there were a number of starter failures during the course of the weekend, and we put a couple in ourselves, including one that was brand new, and it failed to start. We were allowed the allotted time to fix it, but it didn’t happen,” Phonsy confirmed. “It was a pity because we were in with a strong chance of a podium; one good thing though was that we at least finished with an engine intact..”
With parts finally arriving for his own engine during the Temora weekend, Phonsy had them fitted and was right to go two week slater for the annual Griffith Easter weekend.
Consistency saw RAM-JET accumulate enough points to make the top six in the IGA ‘DASH 4 CASH’ but Phonsy would sadly go no further after an exhaust spiral to reduce the noise of the thumping Pro-charged LSX was ejected from the boat prompting Phonsy to prematurely end his run. “I wasn’t sure what had happened,” he shrugged. “I could feel the bang and hear a change in the exhaust note, so thought I’d pull up and check – it’s an easyfix, so we’ll get back into it..”
Whilst that was an easy fix, the missed run meant he’d lost valuable tuning time something which kept him behind the eight ball during Sunday’s all important qualifiers. Holding fifth after session one, theRAM-JET crew were forced to make some modifications after a bolt from the geardrive knocked an alternator bolt off prompting a time consuming fix, something which forced them out of the second qualifier. “We had to fix it,” Phonsy admitted, “and it’s hard to reach so you need to pull a lot of things out to get it. There was no way we could go any faster, so we had to concede the round.”
It made little difference though, RAM-JET comfortably qualifying for the top 12, then the top six after defeating Carroll by just six one thousandths of a second..
In the final Phonsy could do little about reigning Superboat champion Daryl Hutton or former Group A foe Slade Stanley as the duo posted their best times of the weekend, although Phonsy showed how close he had come to the pace of the leaders by topping Hutton’s time to the first split, and just two tenths shy of Stanley.
“That result proved a couple of things to me, notably the fact that we’ve got a couple of major setup issues now that we’ve sorted the engine, it also shows we’re not that far off, so once we can set the boat the way we want it, then we should be strong challengers for the top step. Roll on Cabarita..!”
Whilst Phonsy was all smiles in the Superboat pit, the Group A team were picking up where they’d left off at Temora, with Ted and Darek both setting a hot pace in the IGA ‘DASH 4 CASH’, Dezi topping Q1 to show his Temora result was no fluke, whilst Ted was not far behind. Sadly both fell behind former champion Rohan Smith in the end, with Dezi failing to make the final after tuning made it difficult to drive, the reigning world #2 pulling in early during his second run. “The handling was all wrong, but we were trying something different because really Saturday is an opportunity to do that. I thought qualifying for the DASH 4 CASH final was about getting the best time from three runs like race day, but it’s cumulative, so I should have stayed out– now we’re out of the final, so it’s down to Ted..”
Sadly for Ted, despite topping the timesheets into the final, Rohan Smith went a step forward and Ted a step back... “We were still trying things in the final ready for Sunday, and I just lost a couple of tenths on one corner, so we finished second, but we’ll be ready tomorrow!”
As was the case during the ‘DASH 4 CASH’, race day would see heats in the twilight and the finals under lights.
Ted and Darek were again amongst the pacesetters, and both ranked in the top three heading into the top 12 elimination final. Ted was out first and set a high 38 as he had been doing all day. Dezi too was quickly on the pace, setting a time just shy of his brother, but post round was disqualified for failing to use his own timing transponder..
“After Ted’s run we did all our changeover work in the dark - refuelled and everything else, so we missed the transponder. It was a huge blow because we’d have been good for the final three and would have kept the points lead, but now we’re out and that’s valuable points gone. We won’t make that mistake again.”
Clearly devastated by what was a relatively minor error, all Dezi could do was watch as Ted made his way into the final where for the second night in a row, he fell agonisingly short of Smith in the final, this time just four one hundredths of a second.
“I’m not happy, because we had it in the bag again, but dropped off in the final. At the end of the day though, as Phonsy has said a number of times, you don’t have to be the fastest to win the championship, and we’re back in the points lead after the setback at Temora, so we’re still in the box seat. Now it’s on to Cabarita, and we can certainly win there..!”
After a lengthy ‘mid-season’ break where the Queensland Championships will get underway, the next round of the Australian Championships is scheduled for Cabarita on July10-11.
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).
Triple X Racing are proudly supported by; GM Race Engines, GM Motorsport, SGA Engineering, RAMJET, 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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2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships
UnlimitedSuperboat
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/Kelsie Gill (95 points), 2. Rohan Smith (94), 3. Darek Sygidus/David Gill (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)
*championship points are calculated from the best four point scoring rounds (offive)
www.triplexxxracing.com
www.gmmotorsport.com
www.sgaengineering.com.au
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