NZ Race News (Archives)

Today saw the 5^th and final round of the 2004 NZ Champs contested at Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula. Twenty-eight boats from Auckland, Tauranga and the Waikato have been battling it out since Jan 3rd, racing at Whangamata, Papamoa, Muriwai and Orewa Beach with a mix of high adrenalin Surfcross and physically demanding Long Haul racing.

Pauanui turned on near perfect conditions - fantastic weather, blue skies and mean 1-3 metre rolling waves with an off-shore wind holding up some big dumpers on the inward leg.  A good crowd up on the sand dunes were treated to a great days entertainment with plenty of thrills and spills throughout the day.  

Running in the pack today was our oldest competitor in the sport, Dave McConnell at 65 years young and still mixing it with the top of the field.  All boats completed 4 races each - 6 laps per heat. 

Coming into today’s round, the hot favorites had to be Greg Powell and Kevin McKain in ' Waikato Sandblasting' - veterans in the sport and placed at the top of the points table with 16 consecutive wins this series through consistent driving and a well prepared race boat.  

They were looking good and leading the field in their first heat when on the sixth lap they flipped & narrowed the gap between themselves and second placed Radio Pacific to 157 points.  In their second heat Waikato Sandblasting returned to form and lead from start to finish with Radio Pacific finishing second and the points gap widened again to 175.  Then disaster struck - Waikato Sandblasting had another flip in the third heat and a man overboard in the fourth.   Radio Pacific placed a third and first in their remaining heats.

Now just 9 points separated 1st and 2nd place in the Championship.  With Waikato Sandblasting not qualifying for the day's Final, Radio Pacific only had to finish the race to clinch the title of 2004 NZ Champion.  Playing it safe and driving a conservative race,  James Astrop and Cameron Adshead finished 3rd in the Final and so take out the No 1 title in the 2004 NZ Thundercat Championship.  They have both been in the sport for many years but had only just teamed up for this year’s championship. 

The excitement and tension spilled all the way down the field with 4th placed 'Fletcher Reinforcing', 5th place 'Mustangs 269' and 6th place 'Reaction Screenprint' all being within 100 points of each other, and the following eight boats all within 200 points of each other.

On the day a couple of boats stood out, namely 'Swashbucklers' with the Thompson boys having a great run of four wins and second in the Final.  'Waz' & 'Flash' in 'Hydraulink Racing' finished third for the day and third in the Championship despite having to use a replacement boat after an incident in the first heat left their motor damaged. 

Another boat looking hot was Quicken who finished 4^th for the day after achieving a 2^nd, 4^th, 1^st and 3^rd place in the heats and 6^th in the final.  For those of you who missed Kerry’s ‘Champion of the World’ stance on the finish line look out for it at the next race meeting – it is as good as any european footballer’s shirt over the head type pose!

It was great to see we got several minutes of TV1 sports news coverage and 365 Sport on Sky thanks to Wayne Green’s efforts – Wayne is still working on getting some more coverage.

Thanks also to BMW for having a stand alongside us to promote the new X3 available in June.  I hope you guys all got a look at a really smart vehicle.

Thank you to all the Marshals, Officials, Commentator, Race Director, Scoring and Points Team that made this series possible.  Also a big thank you to the Surf Clubs, Local Councils and Harbourmasters that welcome us to their towns and support us in our sport.

While this was the end of the NZ Champs for 2004 we will still be on the beaches throughout the remainder of the season with our club days.  

 Rod Klaassen / Alan Astrop
Race Officials

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Revised: March 9, 2004