NZ Race News 

3^rd Round “Thundercat National Championships” at Pauanui 22nd January 2005.

Perfect weather with the waves getting bigger throughout the day, by mid afternoon the boats were getting plenty of air thrilling spectators both on the beach and in the dunes.  Entering the third round of the championship any of the top seven boats were in a position to take the lead with only a 200 point difference between them. 

          The first heat of the day first lap rookie Darren Jessop of the Spaceships boat managed to loose his co-pilot Neil Geddes, bad luck but hopefully experience gained.

Once the nerves settled down racing became competitive and extremely close with high speed manoeuvring gaining the smallest of margines, inches at best.  In the second heat of the day another rookie Matt Coyne in the PCI Electrical boat came out like a bullet at the start having a good twenty meters on all the top boats, it took four laps for championship leaders Hydraulink Racing to reel them in, a very respectable fourth place to Matt and co-pilot Ben. The top boats asking and giving no quarter kept the pressure on each other all day with no individual boat able to open up a commanding lead.

4^th Round “Thundercat National Championships” at Pauanui 22nd January 2005.

The water conditions, tide and sandbanks made for some the interesting wave action with two distinct sets of waves, one close inshore and one inside the back markers.  This caught out several boats with Dave McConnell in the Cow boat putting on the best show doing a demonstration of an Emergency Submarine Dive, from full speed to stop in five meters.  Oh boy these guys have come to race hard and fast with the lead in the first heat changing five times, AWESOME RACING with More FM winning by the smallest of margines.  Winner of the heat Tony Vercauteren said after the race Quote: “ I raced my ASS OFF” going from 3^rd – 1^st – 2^nd – 1^st magic to watch, if the boats had got any closer you could thought it was mating season for Thundercats. 

So after the fourth round it’s still open for any of the top ranked boats to take out the championships, the long haul at Maraetai will be the ultimate clincher, go too hard and you could break, go too soft and well, it does not bear thinking about so GO HARD!

            Officials that make it all happen THANK YOU ALL      

             Race report by, Alan Astrop - Race Director

Results 3^rd Round

Pos.     Name.                                      Points

1^st        Hydraulink Racing                  414

2^nd       Reaction Screenprint               347

3^rd        0800FORHAY                        326

4^th        Waikato Finance                     322

5^th        Bay of Plenty Finance             293

6^th        The Cow                                 284

7^th        More FM                                 246

8^th        Dirty Dog                                198

9^th        ATNZ                                      165

10^th      Jungle Coffee                          159

11^th      PCI Electrical                         144

12^th      PlumbQuick                             142

13^th      Heritage Tiles                         136

14^th      Takapuna Panel Beaters          122

15^th      Nail It                                      64

16^th      Hydrualink                              32

Results 4^th  Round

Pos.     Name.                                      Points

1^st        Reaction Screenprint               362

2^nd       0800FORHAY                        345

3^rd        Hydraulink Racing                  331

4^th        Waikato Finance                     301

5^th        More FM                                 279

6^th        The Cow                                 266

7^th        Bay of Plenty Finance             222

8^th        ATNZ                                      216

9^th        Heritage Tiles                         172

9^th        Jungle Coffee                          172

11^th      Dirty Dog                                134

11^th      PlumbQuick                             134

13^th      Takapuna Panel Beaters          114

14^th      PCI Electrical                         94

15^th      Hydrualink                              84

16^th      Nail It                                      55