November
7th, 2004 - Circuit Racing Mercer
Twelve
of our crews came to Mercer looking to get a bit of boat time in as
the season starts to warm up. As
the wind picked up throughout the day the odd bit of tail walking
was evident pleasing the small crowed who lined the bank outside the
Muddy Waters Tavern. The
weather JUST FANTASTIC, the river was quite high up the banks and
looked like the trees on the banks had been cut back giving perfect
racing conditions.
The
new crews took only a couple of races to get used to the extra speed
on the corners of our rectangular circuit. With no propeller guards
being used speed were up with one boat standing out head n shoulders
above the rest, Hydraulink Racing driven by ‘Flash’ Gordon Vandy,
I estimate they would have been doing well over 90km per hour.
Even after a couple of slow starts Flash and his co-pilot
carved their way through the field coming first in every one of
their heats. Most of the
boats were trimmed nicely and looked good on the water, two
exception would have been Selwyn Lowther in the 0800 PROPELLER Boat
and Paul Collins in the Waikato Finance Boat both guys had a sad
case of the dreaded Popping Porpoise.
No truth in the rumour Paul liked the sensation so much he
going to put the boat in the bedroom and throw out the old waterbed,
the mind boggles. The
Mason Lowes Boat driven by Rodney Klaassen ran out of gas in the
last heat of the day, having the shame of being towed back to the
ramp (*I was coming 4th out of 9 boats at the time!*).
Serves him right for setting such a long course at the
beginning of the day, we had to shorten the course by a couple of
hundred meters to create a bit more competition for Rodney’s
Cleaver that was still winding up after 500 meters.
The shorter course suited Jungle Coffee, managing to overtake
Rodney on a couple of occasions as they found better racing lines
and a bit of clear water. After
adjusting the course to a more competitive length we had three boats
head to head at the first buoy for several heats.
Race room being give by all boats and some skill being
evident with both wide and tight turns being used to try and secure
and advantageous racing line.
The
day was easy to control from the Wharf and with no incidents being
seen by the officials, this fact making the RD’s life pleasant for
a change, although a different story was being touted in the Muddy
Waters Pub later in the day, Quote; “I never hit a buoy” Yeh
right! Paul.
Thanks
to all who helped to make the day a success.
Alan Astrop; Race Director.
Results for the Club Championships-
Circuit Racing as follows.
1st
Hydraulink Racing
500
2nd
Takapuna Panel Beaters
428
3rd
Waikato Finance
394
4th
Jungle Coffee
382
5th
0800 PROPELLER
346
6th
King Drilling
336
7th
X-Box
302
8th
Mason Lowes Construction
254
9th
Nail It
192
9th
White Boat
192
11th
JDF
182
12th
Bark Distributors
162
See Race
Results for points & placings
