confirmed results
1st- Reaction Screenprint
2nd- Hydraulink Racing
3rd- Marineworks Racing
Today was the last Round of the NZ
Longhaul Championship and the NZ Thundercat National Series.
Favorites to win today were Waz and
Flash in Hydraulink Racing who had won the 2 previous Longhaul races
but were expecting stiff competition form Reaction Screenprint and
Waikato Finance.
Thundercatracing is part of the New
Zealand Powerboat Federation so for today's race we were guests of
the Off Shore Powerboat Club with our racing in the morning
before the big boats came out for their own race at 2pm.
Arriving at the beach at 9am saw heavy
rain and low cloud....again, but by time we were setup the sun had
broken thru showing flat water 2/3rds of the way out to the island.
Choice of propeller was crucial, cleavers were fitted but a few of
the crews deciding to run 16 or 17in bunny ear props to cope with
the swells and white caps that were building around the far turn
mark.
Race format was a Le-Mans start from the
beach, 7 laps of the 13.5km course with 1 compulsory fuel change and
on every lap the crewman had to come ashore and run around the
marshal.
Entertainment for the day was courtesy
of just about every crewman as they tried to gauge when the boat was
slow enough to jump and make their run to the beach, obviously legs
where tired and stiff and took a couple of steps before they would
begin to work......the photos below show The Dance of the Co-Pilots.
As the co-pilots ran up the beach and
around me all I could hear them saying was "Bloody so-and-so, wish
he'd bloody slow down"
And those that got it right
Bad luck to the guys in Quicken
who halfway into the first lap lost a cylinder but managed to limp
back to the beach safely. Bad luck also to Waikato Finance
who held 3rd and 4th place thru the race only to snap the tiller arm
on lap 5.
Having a really good day were the guys
in Marineworks, running a newly acquired propeller they were
right on the pace holding 2nd place until the last lap when they
were pipped at the post by the guys in Hydraulink Racing
The boats averaged 10 to 13 minutes to
cover the 13.4km lap so by 12.50pm Reaction Screenprint crossed the
finish line in first place with the last place boat landing at
1.05pm.
A big thanks to Leigh and Dan who were
stationed on the Marshal Boat at the back of the race course and to
Leah for taking care of the score keeping duties.
Once we were packed up we stayed to
watch the boats from the
Off Shore Guys race the same course as
ourselves......but taking considerably less time to get around.
I would like to thank the Off Shore
Powerboat club for inviting us along and especially Grant Valder
(President of Off Shore and driver of the famous Jesse James Boat)
and Calvin Hicks for all their assistance in making sure we had
everything that we needed in the way of boats, buoys and safety
support.
We will definitely like to work in again
with your organization.
Rod (Officer of the Day- Thundercats)
|
Whitianga 8th April 2006 |
|
|
|
1 |
Reaction Screenprint |
450 |
|
2 |
Hydraulink Racing |
410 |
|
3 |
Marine Works |
385 |
|
4 |
Jungle Coffee |
364 |
|
5 |
Signtech |
345 |
|
6 |
Dickies |
328 |
|
7 |
Hydraulink |
313 |
|
8 |
Winger Subaru |
300 |
|
9 |
Nail It |
287 |
|
10 |
CSI |
275 |
|
11 |
Red Devil |
263 |
|
12 |
Waikato Finance |
252 |
|
13 |
Quicken |
240 |
proposed race dates subject to permits
1/ Saturday
April 29 Club day Mangawhai
surfcross
2/ Sunday
May 21 Club day Orewa
surfcross
teams racing
3/ Saturday
June 10 Club day Mangawhai
surfcross
check the race calendar page for updates
Copyright © 2002
TRA-NZ
all rights reserved
