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[V8SB] Aussies set for World Titles
by Sean Henshelwood
Aussies ready to take on the worlds!
PREVIEW; 2012 UIM World Jet Sprint Championships
New Zealand (February 11-19)
5 January, 2012
Australia might be fielding a conservative number of entries in the 2012 UIM World Jet Sprint Championships scheduled for New Zealand this February, but whilst numbers are down, there is still every chance that both the Unlimited Superboat and Group A titles will be coming back to Australia..
In the elite Unlimited Superboat class, four of the top five teams in the 2011 Tyreright Australian Superboat Championships are entered, the only omission being multiple Australian Champion Phil Dixon.
Of the ‘local’ stars, the one that will attract the most attention from the New Zealand teams - and six-time world title holder Peter Caughey - will be dual Australian (Unlimited) Champion Dean Finch (Loose Cannon).
Finch was the standout in the national series, having sorted his Farr Faster built twin-turbo 475ci Chev powered package to the point where he could dial in to be more than a second a lap faster than his opposition. The cunning little man from Mildura is renowned worldwide as a whiz with the tune of his boat and jet unit, and with two years experience now with the new engine, should more than match the pace of kiwi favourite, Peter Caughey, although he has one slight disadvantage..
“I’ve never been over there and raced before,” he laughed. “I’m not too worried about it, but the other guys, and the locals will have an advantage to start with.”
Finchy also admitted that post his Australian championship winning run, that he’s done little to the boat to prepare for his world title assault.. “We’re taking the approach of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it..’.. that said, we’ve freshened a number of things that we’d do with regular maintenance, but at the end of the day, the way this engine is built, it’s never under serious stress, so I’m not expecting any dramas.”
Despite his assurances, you can be sure that Caughey will recall the accident that eliminated ‘Loose Cannon’ from the 2009 world titles in Australia, when on target for a potential finals berth, the little orange boat from Mildura inverting itself during a critical finals run, seemingly under pressure from the kiwi star.. Caughey will be hoping to apply the same kind of pressure again this time around..
“I’m not so sure Finchy will make that kind of mistake again,” fellow dual-Australian champion and ex-pat kiwi Daryl Hutton acknowledged. “He’s really stepped up over the last 12 months and become a more complete driver, and if you were going to ask who deserves to win the world title this time around, you’d have to give it to Finchy..”
Like Finch, Hutton too is considered a serious threat to Caughey’s ongoing title aspirations, but even his former arch-rival believes that Caughey will retain the title of event favourite.. “At the end of the day we’re all amateurs,” Hutton said. “This is Caughey’s job, this is what he does for a living, so he’s a professional at this game and he will be hard to beat in whatever he drives.”
Which poses the question about what, if anything the six-time champion will campaign.. one Australian explaining that the rumour was the Kiwi would be driving alongside 2008 Australian Group A champion Phonsy Mullan in his new Sprintec, which is currently being ‘fine-tuned’ in Caughey’s Canterbury (NZ) workshop.. “I hadn’t heard that one,” Mullan laughed when quizzed on the situation.. “All I know is that he’s finished putting my new boat together, and that it should be ready for me to tackle a round of the NZ season at Featherston (22 January) before the worlds.
“It’s a similar package to the original RAM-JET, but obviously the latest Caughey [Sprintec] spec, with an almost identical 430ci LSX twin-turbo unit to what we’ve been using here..
“Look, I’m not sure we’ll be right at the pointy end, at least not straight off. For mind, I think the battle for the title this time will be between Caughey, Finchy and Leighton Minnell in Caughey’s 2009 world title winning package. Then there will be a group of maybe six or seven boats that could also be in with a chance, and I’d like to think we’d be one of those.
“As for Caughey’s boat, I hear rumours of a big cube injected small block with wicked heads from the US that flow figures that are rarely seen outside drag racing - whatever he drives it will be quick, but it’s not likely to be my boat..!”
Whilst Mullan is campaigning a new boat, the likes of Dean Finch, Daryl Hutton and Greg ‘Crusty’ Mercier will be running with ‘known’ packages, although Hutton admits that there is still some way to go with the development of the team’s ‘new’ AquaJet..
“After the last round of the Australian series we pulled everything down, and discovered that the supercharger was in a pretty bad way, and that it was costing us serious power. I could feel it but we couldn’t isolate it, so I think that will bring us closer again to Finchy and Caughey. As for the jet unit, a lot of time and effort and years of development has gone into it, but because there’s only a couple in existence, the data isn’t there like it is with the Scott units, so it’s taking time.
“One area I think we’re well behind is with jet unit pressures, things that Finchy, Caughey and Phonsy have data on and knowledge of, so we’re well behind on that front, but again, on the day it comes down to the driver and the driver’s ability to harness all that power, so it’s by no means a done deal.”
“I’m surprised by just how much horsepower some of these teams are chasing,” Greg Mercier admitted. “We showed during the year that we were capable of taking our ‘little’ injected 500ci alloy powered machine to the podium consistently, and at times we were less than a second from Finchy’s benchmark, so I’m not convinced that bigger is always better..
“There’s a lot to be gained from the hull, and we have the advantage there with the Sprintec being one of the best on the market, and we’ve also had great experience with our Scott jet over a lot of years, so don’t discount us old blokes..”
We should also remember that Crusty is a former finalist in the world championships [Group A] and that he is currently ranked #3 in Australia..
Now whilst that constitutes the Unlimited Superboat component of the Australian team in this year’s world championships, we have to ask the question on the whereabouts of former (and reigning) Group A world champions, Nathan Pretty and Slade Stanley, both of whom have experience in the Unlimited class at the top end..
Stanley narrowly lost the 2010 Unlimited Australian title aboard a ‘borrowed’ boat, one which rarely figured in the top ten, so there was much speculation about Caughey’s reign as world champion in the Unlimited class as the 2012 world titles approached. Sadly for Australia - and for that matter, the rest of the global Jetsprint community - Stanley was unable to prepare his new boat in time for the two-round New Zealand event, and has instead prepared his 2009 title winning package to it’s former glory to share the drive with the boats new owner, Damian O’Leary.
“2011 has been a hell of a year,” the two-time world title holder admitted. “The new Scott hull arrived early in the year, and we started work on the engine, only to be delayed again and again waiting for a new manifold to be fabricated to our spec in the US. It arrived a few weeks before Christmas, and we’ve discovered it doesn’t fit to the specifications, and not only is it twisted, but some of the ports are out by as much as half an inch..
“That screwed any chance we had of being ready for New Zealand, and may even jeopardise our 2012 national season.
“Fortunately Damo [O’Leary] had already offered us the chance to run with him, because he was keen to do a world title event again after Australia in 2009, so we’re putting the old team back together..”
Unfortunately for the Hazardous/Kryptonite team there has been some minor delays in prepping the boat after Stanley made a rare error during the East vs West Challenge in WA last month, flipping the boat at speed after dominating the event early, although fortunately damage was light.
“Yeah I had a slight off when I was pushing to see how the boat was handling, but it’s mostly just scratches. The biggest thing whilst it’s apart though is to meet some of the new regulations that we’re being sent from NZ.. We had carbon/fiberglass seats originally, but we’re being told we need aluminium because they need to be fixed at the top which is against the manufacturers recommendations for the originals seats, and there’s other things coming through the email on a regular basis.. It seems the minute we changed our entry from Unlimited to Group A, the floodgates opened and we’re copping a barrage..”
Whilst dual (and reigning) world champion Stanley will start as favourite, he will find he has his work cut out for him when he battles with former world title holder, part-time V8 Supercar star Nathan Pretty.
Pretty was a late addition to the field, after being offered a drive by former NZ Jetsprint President Andrew Guthrie, to tackle Stanley head-on in what will be an incredible battle.
“I’ve been talking to Andrew Guthrie about the possibility of putting something together to drive. It is a sport I absolutely love, probably more so than the cars to be perfectly honest; I just enjoy the thrill of driving the things,” Pretty admitted.
“There is no secret to the fact I’m not coming over to make up the numbers. I will be very serious about the whole thing and try bring it [the title] back to Australia again.”
Between them, Stanley (2005/2009] and Pretty [2008] have shared the world title wins for more than eight years, and with both back in the saddle again this year, it’s likely the Aussie reign will continue..
And where are the Triple X boys and Brooke Dixon you ask?
Sadly for the fans of Jetsprinting, the Sygidus brothers are unable to take time off their busy work schedule with 360˚ Bolt to make the trip to compete, although both are planning to attend the second round to cheer on Triple X team-boss Phonsy Mullan, whilst Brooke Dixon too will miss out on improving on her current world #2 ranking, electing to concentrate on winning the 2012 Australian Group A title.
2012 UIM World Championships
Rnd#1 – 11/12 February (Featherston, NZ)
Rnd#2 – 18/19 February (Wanganui, NZ)
2012 Australian World Championship team;
Damian O’Leary/Slade Stanley (Kryptonite – Group A)
Greg Mercier (ACOL Skylights – Unlimited Superboat)
Dean Finch (Loose Cannon – Unlimited Superboat)
Phonsy Mullan (RAM-JET – Unlimited Superboat)
Daryl Hutton (Team Solo – Unlimited Superboat)
Nathan Pretty (driving with Andrew Guthrie (NZ) – Group A)
The Australian team for the 2012 UIM World Championships is proudly supported by 360˚ Bolt (www.360bolt.com), ACOL Skylights, RAM-JET, Rip-Shift and the Australian Formula Jet Sprint Association (AFJSA).
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