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News January 2009 Copies
of Current and past New Zealand Hydroplane Drivers Club Newsletters
can be found at the bottom of this page. The Major News from Each
News Letter will be Posted here as well as any relevant News Story
you care to Submit to Denise
Moughan or Webmaster for posting on the Site.
Round 1, Taupo, 24 January 2009
Fairview takes first win in Rayglass NZ Offshore Powerboats in Taupo The Rayglass New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Championship fired up for the first time this summer in hot, calm conditions on Lake Taupo.
The 100-mile race featured a thrilling side-by-side battle between the two superboats, Fairview Windows & Doors piloted by Scott and Warren Lewis, and Tony Coleman and Chris Hanley’s Cure Kids for virtually the whole race. But just two laps from the end Cure Kids nearly flipped while negotiating turn one, says New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Association spokesperson Greg Brinck.
“Tony [Coleman] was just able to save Cure Kids from going over – it was close! Their fight with Fairview Windows had been intense up until that point and it could have been either boat’s race to win. But congratulations to Scott and Warren Lewis on a well-deserved first-up win.”
Amongst the Superboat Lite class, Sam Fillmore and Cary Gleeson were in a class of their own in Doosan to finish third overall in the 100-mile race, well ahead of Kelly and Grant Smith’s Rayglass and Gordon Robinson and Andrew Macbeth’s Barracuda Kayaks who took fourth and fifth respectively.
The 60-mile race provided Brinck and co-driver Eldon Archer with their own dramas. The pair led from the start in Konica Minolta, a Super 60 class boat, but halfway round their scheduled seven laps of the race course the boat’s power steering failed, allowing Mark Diggelmann and Grant Rowe to take their Mark Diggelmann Car Sales Super 60 through for the win.
“Without the power steering it was real gorilla-handling out there,” laments Brinck who was able to hold on for second place. With Diggelmann not entered in the full 2009 championship, Brinck takes the 60-mile championship lead.
Espresso Engineers driven by Mike Gebric and Haydn Mearns was third in the 60-mile race with the Sports 60 Restricted class boat Auckland District Collections #1 of Simon Freeman and Kurt Bynn fourth. The first of the Formula Honda boats, Building Solutions driven by Mike Knight and Shannon Thickpenny, was fifth.
The offshore powerboats added to an already motorsport-rich atmosphere in Taupo this weekend, with the world cup of motorsport A1GP motor racing event also taking place.
“There was good, close racing in every class, with races within races making the whole thing a fantastic spectacle,” says Brinck. “Even though our competitor numbers are a little down on last year, the quality of racing was truly superb. We’ve had a huge crowd watching the racing right along the lakefront and here on the reserve where all our marquees and boats are set up, Taupo locals and visitors have enjoyed the festive atmosphere.” In the 100-mile championship stakes, Lewis and Lewis lead with 475 points from Coleman and Hanley with 375 points. Brinck and Archer lead the 60-mile championship from Gerbic and Mearns. I have
a bunch of pics of Cure Kids incident which will be on my Gallery
in good time along with the other boats that were not very spectacular
at all and will have to step up to match Cure Kids in future Races. 21st January - Shot 360 Photos & News  Brett Niddrie in Warlord. Jeremy Ward as posted his Images from Tauranga to his Website check them out on the link below. 
Jeremy has also set up display at Big Posters in Victoria St, Hamilton. Click the Picture below to see what Big Posters can do for You 
 Check out an article on the GP's at Powerboat World.  Check out an article on Denise Moughan.
18th January 2009 - News 8.30am FREE VIEWING  Today's Coverage of Racing is being made Free to view, Click the above logo to go to the site. You do have to register which is free to do and it enables you to view some of the archive content as well.  Warwick Lupton is making some changes to his boat by filing the rudder to load up the right Sponson and he also put a 3mm shim under the Skeg which will drop the front of the boat down and hopefully he wont be so flighty down the straight.  The Boss crew are hoping they have solved there engine Issues by adjusting the Fuel and Electrical Systems. The Weather today is overcast with a hint of drizzle and a nice breeze hopefully the weather will improve a bit for Racing later in the Day.
So far
only Scott Coker and Brett Niddrie have been out for a test run
with everyone else due out shortly. the Pit area is very congested
and may create some problems later in the day. 16th January 2009 - News Looks like being a reasonable weekend for racing. Quite nice in downtown Tauranga at the moment. Pit area is right across the road from the backpackers where I am (although I think I would have more room in my panelvan frankly), Still has power anyway. I will do some updates during the day hopefully there is power at race Control then i can add a few Pictures to the News Page and add quite a few pictures on Saturday Night will head back home on Sunday Evening, so Sunday pictures will be added to the Gallery on Monday as its a Holiday for me. 
J. Michael Kelly is writing a Blog on the H2O Forum page on his Travels Downunder so check it out and say Gidday to Him. 14th January 2009 - News Live TV Coverage on the Internet will be available on Speedbox TV. The Coverage is only available on the Sunday's. Click on the Speedbox Logo to go to there page where they will have details on how to register to watch These Events. Check out an article on the GP's at Powerboat World. Don't Forget to check the Forum out there will be plenty of news and pictures on the forum over the weekend and following week as well. There are also some very good classic GP race Video Clip links in the forum as well. House for Rent - Karapiro Situated in Karapiro Village Fully furnished three bedroom home available for short term lease. 2 x Double and 2 single bunks. TV, cooking facilities, washing machine. 9m x 9m lockable workshop (light and power) Plenty of off-street parking. Cost $140 per night minimum 2 night stay. For full details please contact Chris or Tasha or phone evenings 07 8239245 11th January 2009 - UIM Jetsprints World Champions  Nathan Pretty won the Group A World Championship by taking out a second Straight round win. Featherston Group A top 3. 1st Nathan Pretty 2nd Ted Sygidus. 3rd Rex Briant Final UIM World Championship. 1st Nathan Pretty. 2nd Slade Stanley. 3rd Peter Briant.  Peter Caughey won the Superboat World Championship by taking out a second Straight round win. Featherston Group A top 3. 1st Peter Caughey 2nd Lieghton Minnell. 3rd Richard Burt Final UIM World Championship. 1st Peter Caughey. 2nd Richard Burt. 3rd Lieghton Minnell. Click the Gallery Page Link below to go to my Gallery. 
10th January 2009 - UIM Jetsprints Final Round  Graeme Mincham's Superboat. You don't get a flame when Methanol is Burning but you can make out the haze over the Engine. Plug leads etc were all melted but the Boat made it back out for the second round. Lots of Drizzle all day today made racing rather difficult with many drivers suffering from vision problems. No big crashes as today is simply about learning the course for most. Hopefully tomorrow will result in some better weather. Click the Gallery Page Link below to go to my Gallery where I am about to start uploading images from Today.
8th January 2009 - View the Powerboat racing form inside the Course  Want view the racing from the middle of the Race Circuit? The Kewpie Cruiser a Restored 45ft Launch will be in the centre of the course from 11.30am till 3.30. You can get a finger food lunch & boat ride for $45.00 The boat has a fully licensed Bar aboard. Please contact Denise if you would like to book your ticket for Saturday limited seats for Sunday so be in quick 7th January 2009 - News  Steve Rosewarne's Flattie "Bold Move" imported from the USA. Steve is Working on the Engine at Rivers Speed and Spares Workshop in Wanganui and Hopes to be ready in time for the Masport Cup in Tauranga in 10 days time. 
Ian & Peter Thomas have sold "The Advocate" F1 Boat to Tony Latimer who will run the boat as a second Patriot Boat. The Engines were sold to Luke Sharp from "Prompt Parts". The Thomas Brothers have been very avid Powerboat Supporters and it will be sad to see them not Racing this Season. 5th January 2009 - Masport UIM GP World Championship News  Less than two weeks to go before the first round of the 2009 UIM World Grand Prix Hydroplane Championship we can report that the Warlord boat has arrived safely in New Zealand and is presently stored in Auckland awaiting for the team to arrive thursday week. After speaking with owner Ron Burton they have the boat and all three engines ready to go and are certainly looking forward to the World Series they also hope to take home with them the AE Baker Australasian Championship which has been in held by New Zealand since 2001. J. Michael Kelly and his finance arrive in New Zealand wednesday week we would like to take this opportunity to thank H20 Full Throttle for making it possible to bring J. Michael to New Zealand and to Peter Knight Snr and his team for making the boat available for him to drive. Team leader Dave Hurrell from Christchurch told me that they have run up one engine and the second is just about finished the team are excited about the return of The Boss and some of the original team are back to support their quest to win the World Championship.  Graeme Weller returns to Grand Prix Hydroplane with his purchase of the 3 x winning World Champion boat ex Casino De Montreal after three years off from the Grand Prix Hydroplane Circuit Graeme is back and recently tested his renamed G-Force Jamie Auld design Grand Prix Hydroplane at Mangakino early December. Graeme and his team had a few teething issues the first day but buy the end of the weekend they where pretty excited and happy with the way the boat was going. Scott Coker on the other hand had a few boat handling issues with his Fair Warning and is presently looking at different propellers to help make the boat handle a little better. The engine program is on song and Scott is happy with the way his father Selywn has the engine tuned and confident that they will be reliable and on the podium.  GP007 Warwick Lupton current World Champion and recent winner of the EC Griffith's Cup is hoping to have his new Grand Prix Hydroplane in the series but has some recent set backs with work and family so the boat has taken a back seat however he has the 007 boat back from Australia and they are going over it and assure me they will be ready and rearing to go for the first round at Tauranga never under estimate this elder statesmen of Grand Prix Hydroplane racing. The soft roll over of GP008 David Alexander survived his crash recently at Yarrawonga Australia and trust me he is still spitting out water as he tells his story of survival and we are grateful to the Australian rescue team for plucking David out by his feet in the up turned Annihilator 2. The boat suffered minor damage and the new canard was made by Tom Heffernan before it returned to NZ. So a little patch up of paint and engine builder Grant Rivers will pull down the drenched Big Chief engine and refresh it and he will be ready to go with his 2500 hp engine a force to be reckoned with.  The brightly orange Falcon Engineering sponsored GP009 of Ken Lupton suffered quiet a bit of damaged to the skeg and the transom after throwing a blade while battling for first place with Warlord in the Yarrawonga Gold Cup. The vibration was so severe that it pulled the gear box off and loosened the bolts in the cowling the repairs where also made before the boat returned to NZ. Ken was pretty happy with his new engine and gear box package so a through check over of the boat over the next week he is also pretty much ready to go. The final checks to make sure that all is in place for the Tauranga event are now in progress as we count down to the first round of the 2009 UIM World Grand Prix Hydroplane Championship and who will be the 2009 World Champion ??? I would say is pretty hard to predict. A New Video of Peter Knight The Boss and Ladybug Mike Southward with Selwyn Coker in the Fair Warning Boat (White in this clip) as well 4th January 2009 - UIM World Jet Sprint Champs  Daniel Tall & Graham Allen get Loose. Both Navigator and Driver were bruised and shaken in this big Crash but were ok after being checked out at hospital.  Ray & Nicky Ferguson Had a Double Barrel Roll. Both Navigator and Driver were bruised and shaken the Boat was too damaged to Continue in this round. Superboat's quick results:   1st Peter Caughey & Karen Marshall   2nd Richard Burt & Roger Maunder   3rd Duncan Wilson & Jamiee Lupton. Group A Quick Results:   1st Nathan Pretty & Link.   2nd Peter Briant & Robyn Briant.   3rd Slade Stanley & Vanessa Wright. Click the Gallery Page Link below to go to my Gallery where I will start uploading more Pics Monday
3rd January 2009 - UIM World Jet Sprint Champs  Duncan Wilson is a little off the pace at the Racing today he thinks a few modifications and the Lighter Jamiee Lupton returning to the navigator seat tomorrow will see him pick up the pace. There's a good strong field and they ran two qualifying runs today with 46 entries 20 of which are Australian entries. Click the Gallery Page Link below to go to my Gallery where I will start uploading Pics Tonight
2nd January 2009 - Endorphin Rush  Wells Racing Hydro "Endorphin Rush" nearing completion after having F1 Capsule fitted by Peter Stilwell "SBR Racing Nelson". This type of F1 capsule in a Mod H Hydroplane gives excellent side & frontal driver protection. A NZ 1st. Hopefully this can be done again in the near future.  Click to get our Archive News Page Almost all the News Stories and Pictures are to be found somewhere in the Archives Just try and remember when the event occurred and pick the page that matches those Dates |
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pictures in these Gallery's are either the Property of the New Zealand
Grand Prix Hydroplane Drivers Club or have been Loaned to the New Zealand
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Any Image or Text can not be reproduced for commercial use without the
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