[V8SB] It's not over yet..!

by Sean Henshelwood

It’s not over yet..!
Review: Rnd#4 2011 Tyreright Australian Superboat Championships
Tweed Coast (Cabarita Beach), NSW (August 27-28)

The 2011 Tyreright Australian Superboat Championships continued after a lengthy mid-season break, returning to Cabarita, the very venue that turned the championship on its ear last time around.

Back in June, championship favourites Dean Finch (Unlimited Superboat) and ‘Triple X’ (400 Class) had a weekend they would all much rather forget. Even runaway 350 Class points leader Daniel deVoigt failed to win the round, although he did extend his points lead as race-winner Mark Garlick (2008 champion) was only back in the seat for [at that stage] one round.

Despite losing valuable championship points, you could sense that those that missed out on the lengthy and winding layout in June wouldn’t be caught out again.

“This layout looks to flow a lot more than it did last time out,” Greg ‘Crusty’ Mercier (ACOL Skylights) admitted after surveying the rotation for the weekend. He, like round four winner Phil Dixon (Auspro Logistics) was all smiles before opening practice, with the Cabarita layout expected to work more in favour of the lighter, more nimble injected boats.

Sadly, the smiles didn’t last long, the Tweed Valley, like much of the Gold Coast region suffering an intense deluge on day one, limiting time one track due to the intense rain and decreased visibility.

A single practice lap and the bulk of one session of qualifying was conducted before officials brought the day to a close as the weather closed in again.

“There wasn’t much point in the end,” Australian Formula Jet Sprint Association [AFJSA] President Greg Harriman admitted. “Visibility was poor, and some of the injected boats were starting to get too much rain down the trumpets, so it was unreasonable to continue.”

UNLIMITED SUPERBOAT
Fortunately day two dawned fine - another brilliant day on the Tweed Coast - providing spectators with plenty of motivation to head down to the Cabarita venue and enjoy the day’s racing, and all the action that V8 Superboats provides.

It didn’t take long either, Adam Raverty in ‘Jackhammer’ launching his newly repaired Stinger off an island so hard that it almost needed clearance from mission control.

“I couldn’t get a rhythm at all today, and just caught a shallow part of the circuit, which put me off line and I collected one of the banks and that was it, we were passengers,” he admitted with disappointment.

“We only just had Precision Panel Care repair it after Jody’s [team-mate Jody Ely] crash here last time out, and now I’ve bent it again - I won’t be popular when I get home.

“Because I stuffed up the opening session and stuck it up the bank, Jody’s the fastest qualifier, so I owe him $100, but I said at the end of the year, $1000 should go to the driver who had the best crash, so I reckon he owes me $900…”

Despite tearing the rear wing off the boat, and bending the transom [rear of the boat] ‘Jackhammer’ was back in action for the remaining rounds and the first of the finals, although it had lost some of its customary pace.

They weren’t the only long faces in the pits, over at ‘Team Solo’ Unlimited Superboat points leader - and reigning champion - Daryl ‘Nutsy’ Hutton too was struggling, missing a couple of sessions due to a fuel pump failure, not what the Peter Freckleton-owned team wanted after a serious rebuild post-round three.

“It took ages for the pistons to be manufactured in the States,” Hutton confirmed, “and when they arrived we put it all together, added a few more tweaks, and some replacement parts including the fuel pump. We had a few dramas getting it to run and not lean out, so we spent a while chasing the problem only to discover it was the pump, so we’ve had to source a new one overnight from Brisbane, and now it’s having dramas with an o-ring failure. Hopefully we can get on top of it, because Finchy looks fast, and we need to score some serious points this weekend if we’re going to take that third title.”

Finchy was indeed fast, in fact so fast that few got close, the 2007 champion setting the top time in every qualifier to comfortably make the finals.

“After last round, we had a bit of a point to prove,” he grinned. “Experience counts at a circuit like this, because you have to drive smart. We’re lucky to get near 50% throttle, so you have to do a lot of feathering. We’re comfortable though, so we’ll see what happens in the final because we’ve got some points we need to score back if we’re going to take the championship win this year.”

It wasn’t just experience that counted either, a deft touch and careful throttle control were big issues, two areas that Louise Dixon (Auspro Logistics) and Cheryl Welch (Skywest Racing) excel, both drivers inside the top five for much of qualifying, in fact Louise was third in the opening qualifier, just two tenths slower than Greg Mercier.

Sadly though the June round winners would fail to make the finals after a major engine failure in the opening final ended their run at the top three.

“It’s pretty big,” Phil Dixon admitted with disappointment. “It felt great, the boat was fantastic and I felt I could have attacked Finchy [Phil had been the number two qualifier and his best lap was just half a second shy of Finch’s best], but it wasn’t to be. It’s a big failure, looks like the crank has broken, so that will take some time to repair, which means we’ll be out for the rest of the season. There is one upside though, Louise was at the wheel when it happened, so she’ll have to pay for it,” he grinned.

Another driver having a less than perfect weekend was RAM-JET’s Phonsy Mullan. “We’ve made some changes since we were last here, but it looks like the extra weight we’ve added has messed up the weight distribution, so it’s just not handling the way I’d like,” he admitted.

“We’ll go away and work on it though, as now we’ve got the engine right, we can spend some more time working on the boat. It will suit Temora better, and with Melton looming in late September, we’ll have a chance to do some more testing, but we’re certainly getting closer.”

With the ‘Auspro’ team out of final six, it was down to Finchy to lose it and Hutton to make up for lost time, but the last thing the ‘Loose Cannon’ team were going to do was let this one go. The benchmark was set high in the first final, Finchy dropping the time to a 36.060, the fastest time of the weekend.

‘Skywest Racing’s’ Jamie Welch was second, which was a nice recovery after dramas through qualifying. “The seat back broke after the bolts ripped through, so I was being thrown around like a rag doll,” he admitted. “It was like someone standing on your back and twisting your shoulders around, it wasn’t comfortable, but we’ve fixed it and the boat is fast.”

Hutton was third fastest ahead of Phil Dixon, who would go no further after the engine failed on Louise’s top 12 run. The upshot of that was that Greg ‘Crusty’ Mercier would be gifted an entry into the second final after a navigational error in the final 12 saw him classified way down the back.

“I stuffed up, and recovered, but thanks to the Dixon’s failing to make the cut, I get another go,” he grinned. Earlier in the day the ‘ACOL Skylights’ team were inside the top four, despite a fuel issue they were chasing which was restricting top end performance.

Despite a relatively ‘pedestrian’ effort in the final six, Dean Finch was again on top, with the recovering Mercier knocking off Hutton for second, at the same time eliminating Jamie Welch from the final three, ending what had been a frustrating weekend for the West Australian.

In the final though it was all ‘Loose Cannon’ the popular former champion back into the 36s [36.887] to take the win from Mercier [38.053] and Hutton [38.367].

“That’s what we needed,” Finchy grinned afterwards. “Now we need to do the same thing again at Temora if we’re going to have any chance of knocking that kiwi off the top step of the podium for the title.”

“It goes to show you what a great team we have,” Daryl Hutton acknowledged afterwards. “Without them working at the problem and constantly improving the boat, we couldn’t have done it. Okay, so it’s third, but it’s valuable points. Now we have to go home and do some homework and find some more horsepower and make sure we win the last two rounds so that we can keep that dream of three consecutive title alive.”

INTERNATIONAL GROUP A
Last time the Group A field arrived at Cabarita, victory was taken by ‘321Ignition’s’ Jake Garlick, giving the team their maiden Superboat victory after series favourites ‘Triple X’ struggled in the testing conditions.

“I don’t think it’s going to be quite so easy this weekend,” Garlick reflected. “Triple X are difficult to beat at the best of times, and they don’t stay down long, so they’ll come out all guns blazing this weekend, but that said we’ve found some more time in the boat, so I think we could do it, we’ll just see what happens through qualifying.”

Typically, ‘Triple X’ were on their ‘A’ game with both points-leader Darek, and older brother - reigning champion - Ted right at the pointy end of the field from opening practice, the ledger only changed after Darek came off mid-way through his final qualifier.

“I just clipped a shelf under the water, and it threw me of line, it was a quick spin, but everything looks okay, so we’ll be back for the finals,” he said afterwards.

Despite the setback, Darek had done enough to top the qualifying points, his fastest lap of 39.570, a quarter of a second clear of Garlick’s quickest (39.799), with Ted fourth quickest (39.920). But it was Tremayne Jukes applying the bulk of the pressure up front, the Stingray boat manufacturer back in an earlier model boat - most recently campaigned by Daniel James - after selling his ‘Stingray Stealth’ to Western Australia after the June round.

“We’ve made some mods to Daniel’s boat, and added my mechanicals, so it’s kind of an interim measure,” he admitted, “but it won’t take long to dial it in.” It didn’t, TJ was second fastest (39.721), not far off Sygidus, although by the end of qualifying, the faces in the Stingray Racing camp didn’t reflect being just over a tenth off a possible victory..

“The engine’s got a drama,” TJ scowled. “It’s progressively getting worse, but what’s interesting is that it seems intermittent because it starts to die, then gets all its power back again. We’ll back-track and see what we can find in the fuel system, but I fear it’s not going to help too much, the issue looks internal..”

Another driver figuring strongly in the top half of the field was ‘Kryptonite Racing’s’ Damian O’Leary in the multiple championship winning boat of Slade Stanley, the South Australian getting faster with every outing to be in the top five through qualifying, a performance he carried into the finals.

‘321Ignition’s’ Greg Harriman too was revelling in the performance boost the team had achieved with the addition of Jake Garlick to the lineup, the AFJSA President comfortably inside the top six, and beaming from ear-to-ear. “This is fantastic,” he laughed.

After her primary engine failed at round two at Temora (after almost 18 months of intense racing, including a world championship event), Hi-Tec Oils Racing’s Brooke Dixon was more than ready to attack for round victory after persisting with a borrowed engine in June. “Parts were scarce for our main engine which Tracksport rebuilt in New Zealand, so we had to borrow an engine for the first Cabarita event,” she confirmed.

“It was down a bit on power, so we did what we could and scored points, as we knew the new engine would be ready for this weekend.”

Typically quick straight out of the box these days, Brooke was further back than she would have liked in opening qualifying, whilst in the pits the team worked feverishly on the Hi-Tec Oils supported machine between rounds. Sadly though, before the end of qualifying the popular Victorian, and reigning world #2 was out.

“It’s broken a rocker,” team-boss Phil Dixon admitted with disappointment. “It looks like a part failure, but we’re concerned the damage could be worse lower down, so we’ll retire it and take it home and give it a thorough inspection. It’s frustrating because we know this is the kind of circuit that suits Brooke, and she could well have put herself back into title contention with a win here, but it’s not over yet, there’s still Hi-Tec Oils Park at Temora at season’s end, so we’ll be back to give it our best there..”

Further back in the field Nathan Dickenson was finally starting to show some strong pace in ‘Witch Bank’ running this weekend without father Daryl who he normally double-teams with. Despite a limited campaign in Group A since graduating last season, the Queenslander showed he still has plenty of speed up his sleeve, running inside the top six before struggling with navigational errors in the finals.

Brooke Lucas (Our Toy) too was quick early, but struggling with a persistent oil pressure issue. “It’s been happening almost every event,” the former 350 Class champion admitted. “And almost every event I pull it down looking for the problem, and put it back together..”

Lucas, like Brad Marsden (Air8d) made the top 12, but sadly, like Dickenson, didn’t progress any further.

At the front of the field though the battle between ‘Triple X’ and ‘321Ignition’ continued, Ted, Darek and Jake split by seven tenths of a second, with Jukes - as he predicted - dropping further back. Damian O’Leary though continued his improvement to drop Jukes back to fifth, with Harriman the final entrant into the top six.

Darek was first out, setting a best of 39.980, Garlick out next, falling eight one thousandths short (39.988) with Ted taking back the lead with a 39.939, it couldn’t get much closer..

TJ also dug deep to set a 40.033 with O’Leary half a second further back, the top four covered by a mere five one hundredths of a second…!

Garlick was first driver out in the final, setting his fastest lap of the weekend - 39.666, but would it be enough? Darek was next up, the points leader falling agonisingly short, 39.713.. Now it was Ted’s turn.

The lap was almost flawless, 39.358 almost a quarter of a second faster than he’d been all day, right when it mattered.

“We had a rough run last time we were here,” he admitted afterwards, “so like Finchy, we had something to prove, and two boats in the top three, with Phonsy fourth was a good recovery for the whole Triple X team.”

The result too sets up a fantastic end to the season, with Ted and Darek now tied on adjusted points (drop your worst round) with two rounds remaining.

350 CLASS
Just days out from the fourth round of the championship came some hopeful news for Daniel deVoigt after 2008 champion Mark Garlick revealed that he wouldn’t be at Cabarita after suffering a leg injury in the week leading up to the event.

“Phew, doesn’t that take the pressure off,” deVoigt admitted. “It’s a pity that he’s injured,” but on a busy race weekend like this for the Club (for which deVoigt is an active member), my focus isn’t entirely on the driving, which adds more pressure especially with a championship on the line..

“So with Garlo missing, that should make our lives a little easier..”

In the end, it was deVoigt (DEVO 2) who took the round win, carding maximum points in the process, with rookie campaigner Brett Thornton (Obsession) continuing to impress by taking second on the testing layout, the Queenslander at one point just four tenths off deVoigt’s pace.

Third overall after holding the position through the entire weekend was West Australian Michael Darwen (Under Suspicion) who drove with great maturity to score his maiden national round podium.

Fourth despite failing to get too far in the top six was Betina Dickenson (Witch Way), who like sister Lauren and brother Nathan, failed to record a time on the most critical lap of the weekend (the final).

“If you strung all our finals together, you still wouldn’t have made a lap,” Nathan quipped afterwards.

Fifth was a great result for Superboat rookie Jeremy Kincaid (Pheonix), the Victorian running with assistance from good mate Tremayne Jukes, the Stingray Racing team providing as much assistance as they could to ensure Kincaid made the most of his maiden event, a cool head and calculated approach meaning he was one of few drivers in the class to complete every round for the weekend.

The Tyreright Australian Superboat Championships now returns to Temora (NSW) for the final round of the championship - October 29-30, although there is some pending news about a final announcement of the location and date of the penultimate round. For more information to keep you up to date in the interim, please keep an eye on www.v8Superboats.com.au and facebook.com/V8Superboats

Rnd#4 Tyreright Australian Superboat Championships
Unlimited Superboat
1. Dean Finch (Loose Cannon) - 66 points
2. Greg Mercier (ACOL Skylights) - 57
3. Daryl Hutton (Team Solo) - 53
4. Phil Dixon (Auspro Logistics) - 49
5. Phonsy Mullan (RAM-JET) - 44
6. Louise Dixon (Auspro Logistics) - 39
7. Cheryl Welch (Skywest Racing) - 37
8. Tyler Finch (Loose Cannon) - 36
9. Jamie Welch (Skywest Racing) - 34
10. Peter Freckleton (Team Solo) - 21
11. Jody Ely (Jackhammer) - 20
12. Adam Raverty (Jackhammer) - 12

International Group A (400 Class)
1. Ted Sygidus (Triple X) - 61 points
1. Jake Garlick (321Ignition) - 61
3. Darek Sygidus (Triple X) - 60
4. Tremayne Jukes (Stealth) - 53
5. Damian O’Leary (Kryptonite) - 46
6. Greg Harriman (321Ignition) - 35
7. Nathan Dickenson (Witch Bank) - 34
8. Brooke Lucas (Our Toy) - 26
8. Brad Marsden (Air8d) - 26
10. Brooke Dixon (Hi-Tec Oils) - 21
11. Kevin Laugesen (SpaNET) - 14

350 Class
1. Daniel deVoigt (DEVO 2) - 66 points
2. Brett Thornton (Obsession) - 60
3. Michael Darwen (Under Suspicion) - 54
4. Betina Dickenson (Witch Bank) - 47
5. Jeremy Kincaid (Pheonix) - 46
6. Ed Owen (Under Suspicion) - 35
7. Shane Brennan (Miztabanks) - 27
8. Lauren Dickenson (Witch Bank) - 14

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2011 Tyreright Australian Superboat Championships
Rnd#1 - Temora, NSW (April 22)
Rnd#2 - Temora, NSW (April 23)
Rnd#3 - Cabarita, NSW (June 26)
Rnd#4 - Cabarita, NSW (August 27-28)
Rnd#5 - tbc
Rnd#6 - Temora, NSW (October 29-30)

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Championship points (after four rounds of six)
Unlimited Superboat
1. Daryl Hutton (232 points), 2. Dean Finch (202), 3. Phil Dixon (198), 4. Greg Mercier (177), 5. Jamie Welch (168), 6. Phonsy Mullan (146), 7. Cheryl Welch (137), 8. Jody Ely (131), 9. Adam Raverty (117), 10. Tyler Finch (89), 11. Louise Dixon (67), 12. Glenn Roberts (37), 13. Peter Freckleton (31), 14. Paul Burgess (30), 15. Andrew Page (24)

International Group A (400 Class)
1. Darek Sygidus (225 points), 2. Ted Sygidus (214), 3. Jake Garlick (198), 4. Tremayne Jukes (196), 5. Damian O’Leary (166), 6. Brooke Dixon (157), 7. Rob Colman (136), 8. Greg Harriman (98), 9. Rodney Krause (97), 10. Brooke Lucas (75), 11. Kieran Krause (65), 12. Shane Loughnan (63), 13. Mick Manini (58), 14. Nathan Dickenson (47), 15. Kevin Laugesen (45), 16. Brad Marsden (36)

350 Class
1. Daniel deVoigt (260 points), 2. Brett Thornton (218), 3. Troy McKenzie (150), 4. Shane Allen (99), 5. Michael Darween (88), 6. Betina Dickenson (84), 7. David Blake (69), 8. Robert Hallum (65), 9. Mark Garlick (64), 10. Ed Owen (61), 11. Shane Brennan (47), 12. Jeremy Kincaid (46), 13. Lauren Dickenson (40), 14. Daniel James (10)

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