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NZ Race News |
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King of the Cape 2005 SURFHAUL Saturday’s sea conditions for the Surf-Cross were not ideal with most of the afternoon having less than a one meter surf break. Due to the lack of waves the course was set short to create more overtaking opportunities and keep the racing competitive. The crowd were given a small taste of the WOW Factor when the boats got a bit of air off incoming waves, overall conditions making the day rather tame with none of the usual flips or crew falling out of their boats.
The overall winner for the day was James Astrop with first time co-pilot Hayley having heaps of fun, with four first places and a second, Hayley’s comment was it sucks to be second when you have all that prop spray cascading into the boat when the chase is on. Sunday was the main event with the King of the Cape Surf-Haul, sea conditions getting bigger and therefore better suited to Thundercat Racing but not as rough as last year, when we had eleven boats flip upside down or roll over sideways. This year several crews fell out of their boats but no flips although several boats were tail walking quite a bit pushing the boats to the extreme, some would say skill but others may say luck. It’s a very fine line between a tail walking boat and having a upside down boat . One gives you a bit of a rush , the other costs you time and money not mention a big dent in the dignity. This years entry had only ten boats due in the main to the lack of a TV sponsor being found. A one hundred and twenty five kilometre course broken into two sections from Ahipara to the Bluff and back gave a few of the crews a tactical headache, knowing how much fuel to carry.
An extra couple of kilograms weight could lose a race but to run out of fuel is a hard lesson to learn as Waikato Finance did within sight of the mid-point finish line but managed to borrow some gas from another support vehicle to make the cut off time and then Hydraulink just a few hundred meters from the end of the race had the motor cough and then die...... Hydraulink’s co-driver ran the last 500 meters losing three places but still getting to finish in seventh place instead of fourth, so a little too much is better than not enough.
Well done to our new crews in Quicken and Nail It and commiserations to the boys in JDF who had to retire early with engine trouble. The new King of the Cape title has gone to a couple of old timers in the sport Steve Frogley and Steve Morrison driving the PlumbQuick Boat with an overall time of 2hrs 2min
Our St Johns lady Ivy out for a ride at Ahipara Beach Thank you for all your work and supporting our event More Photos Click Here Place Boat Name Time Hrs-Min- Sec
1st
PlumbQuick 2hrs
2min 40sec 2nd Hydraulink Racing 2hrs 4min 43sec 3rd Jungle Coffee 2hrs 4min 55sec 4th Takapuna Panelbeaters 2hrs 5min 28sec 5th Bay of Plenty Finance 2hrs 6min 20sec 6th Waikato Finance 2hrs 13min 50sec 7th Hydraulink 2hrs 15min 12sec 8th Quicken 2hrs 22min 02sec 9th Nail It 2hrs 27min 27sec 10th JDF DNF Race report by Alan Astrop Race Director.
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photo
courtesy of FarNorthPhotos
