|
|
NZ Race News (Archives) |
January 3rd, 2004 - Whangamata BeachRound 1 - NZ Thundercat ChampionshipsOnce we overcame a few initial set up problems and got into the racing flow, the day went quite smoothly with some exciting racing thrills and spills giving a 3000 plus crowd a great days entertainment. The weather conditions were great, 1-2 metre surf and clean water out the back. Unfortunately we had to have quite a small course due to lack of space on the shared beach area.
As for the racing; 'X-Box' had a torrid day, losing the co-pilot overboard on the third lap of the first race, had a fine start from grid one in the fifth race only to flip, and just to finish the day off had Bark Distributors land on top of them & pop a rear pontoon. Tough learning experience for the new boys on the block. Sometimes even the officials get it wrong and as assistant RD in A tower on the first race, I called a red flag on 'Jungle Coffee' between A and B buoys when the boat was four metres in the air with ‘no crew’. It fell behind a wave and the crew appeared to somehow fall back in the boat (gravity is a wonderful thing!). There were several flips throughout the day including the final when both 'Radio Pacific' and 'Hydraulink Racing' were overturned by a sizeable wave. It would appear that James Astrop’s rogue wave was back to haunt him.
Thanks to our willing helpers - too many to mention by name so THANKS to you all. A special thank you to
See Photo Album for more action photos
News Extra: Greg Salthouse (X-BOX) had even more action on Saturday evening when his wife Delaine went into labour 10 weeks early (perhaps induced by the day's racing??) Congratulations - great to hear mother and baby are doing well. |
|
all rights reserved |
Use
of our new beach towers (thanks to Southern Trust) made marshalling
at both ends of the course easy – at 3 metres above the crowd the
view becomes panoramic making it pretty easy to track the boats and
check that the course is clear, safe and ready for racing.
The
boat to beat must be hot favourite 'Waikato Sandblasting' with Greg
Powell and Kevin McKain, closely followed by
Kaine Ross and Jason Webb in 'Mustangs 269'.
who approved a grant for our trolleys, towers, radios, horn, first
aid and engine seals.
Alan
Astrop