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[BOAT] Brooke Dixon top Aussie at Wanganui
by Sean Henshelwood
(Archived)
Brooke Dixon takes top Aussie honours at Wanganui
Round one of the Jetpro New Zealand Championships
Shelter View, Wanganui, NZ – December 27, 2008
Arriving in New Zealand on Boxing Day, a large part of the Australian contingent competing in the two-round 2008 UIM World Championships elected to make a ‘dry’ run in the opening round of the 2009 New Zealand championships at Wanganui.
This gave a number of teams a chance to trial modifications and updates to boats and engines prior to Meremere’s opening round on January 3 – it also gave the Aussies their first chance to see what they could expect from their toughest opponents for the world titles.
Despitecompeting amongst the New Zealand teams, the Aussies weren’t competing for points, with NZ teams concerned that for the one round the Australians contested, it could have too big an impact on their points in the national championships, so the Australian teams competed amongst themselves for bragging rights.
Six Group A teams made the trip to Wanganui, whilst newly crowned Australian champion Phil Dixon and wife Louise were the only Superboat competitors entered for Team Australia.
“It gave us some seat time, and also gave us a look at what we can expect in the world championships,” Phil Dixon explained. “We were quick enough for third, but a little off the pace of local sensation Richard Burt and the returning ‘king’ of Jetsprinting, Peter Caughey.
“They were quick, but they also knew the venue, I suppose the same can be said for the forthcoming world title events, but there we have two days to get ourselves dialed in. We’re a little bit off at the moment, but we’ll work on it and see what we can find by next week..”
In Group A the situation was similar, with locals Peter Briant and NZ Jetsprint Association President Garry Smith setting a cracking pace, a good two plus seconds faster than the quickest Australian team, Aussie #2 Greg Mercier.
Mercier led the Aussie contingent from the outset and faced off against Brooke Dixon and Ted Sygidus in the final, Dixon just topping Mercier in the final three shootout, dropping the laconic Victorian to second.. again!
“Bloody typical.. We lead all day and Brooke pulls a blinder in the final. The modifications we made to the boat after Albury were an improvement, but as Phil said, we’re still a couple of seconds shy of the top kiwi drivers, so we’ll do some more homework before Meremere.”
“It was a great event,” Australian Jetsprinting Association President Greg Harriman confirmed, “probably in the vicinity of 2500 people in the crowd. The top local drivers were very fast, but our top teams were certainly capable of podiums, but we’re all here to win, so there will be plenty of fine tuning done before the first round. Whilst Brooke, Greg, Ted, Darek (Sygidus), TJ (Tremayne Jukes) and myself contested Wanganui, we’ve still got Slade (Stanley) and Nathan Pretty to join us and I think those two will push the New Zealanders to the limit.”
Race one of the UIM World Jetsprint Championships is scheduled for Meremere (south of Auckland) on January 3-4, whilst round two will be a week later at Featherston (north of Wellington – January 10-11).
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2009 Jetpro New Zealand Championships
Round #1, Shelter View, Wanganui – December 27
Suzuki Superboats
1. Richard Burt/Roger Maunder
2. Peter Caughey/Karen Marshall
3. Leighton Minnell
ChemZ Group A
1. Peter Briant/Robin Briant
2. Garry Smith/Suzanne Shirtliffe
3. Bevin Muir/Kathy Barker
Jetpro NZ Lites
1. Sam Newdick/Aaron Kelly
2. Dave Stone/Steve Greaves
3. Mark Newdick/Ollie Silverton
Aussie Group A
1. Brooke Dixon/Amy Harriman
2. Greg Mercier/Dorinda Mercier
3. Ted Sygidus/Byron Bassett
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