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This website is now dedicated to covering the Black Bullets. Current Black Bullets news is now provided on iSportz » with past news archived here for your continued reference.
Round three of the Cougar Marine Inex Metals offshore powerboat championship will be staged at Maraetai Beach east of Auckland this Saturday (1 March). Over the years the Maraetai race has thrown up differing conditions from flat to extremely rough and choppy seas that have challenged the best of teams, while on shore activities have always been well supported due to the plentiful room for corporate tents and sponsors entertainment at the Maraetai Beach reserve.
Heading into this round with confidence will be series leader Peter Turner & Craig Archer in their twin V8 Superboat Sleepyhead who has taken line honours in the opening two rounds at Taupo and Gulf Harbour. The Sleepyhead team have been right on song in both events leading comfortably right from the start and have never been seriously challenged and will be looking to extend their championship points lead over the nearest rivals, brothers Scott & Warren Lewis who have been the brides maid in both rounds. In fact it's one monkey the Lewis brothers would be keen to get rid of as victory has eluded them since joining the sport four years ago. Potentially the Fairview Windows & Doors team has the speed; boat size may be the handbrake in this year's campaign.
One of the Superboat teams will need to put a stop to the Sleepyhead winning streak otherwise the season will be over before they know it. Making matters worse for the Superboat field is the PlaceMakers challenge is over after the Shores / Carson combination flipped their race boat at Gulf Harbour prematurely ending their season. If conditions are moderate to rough one boat that can step up to the plate will be that of Wayne Valder & Ross Christenson in Pro Floors Racing. This boat seems to excel in testing conditions; they were certainly going a lot better two weeks ago and with slight set up changes for Maraetai will be keen to nudge an extra mile an hour out of the 34-foot Phantom catamaran.
Tony Coleman in the 35-foot Skater, Cure Kids has undergone changes of a different sort since Gulf Harbour, with throttleman Grant Valder electing to return to racing his former Superboat, Jesse James in the Classic class growing the number of boats in that particular class to five. At this stage it would appear that Wayne Carson will join Coleman, his experience which includes seven national titles as a co driver should be invaluable as Coleman comes to grips with racing boats at 115 mph. Set up changes with drives heights and propeller choice would certainly be advantageous to this boats development and increased performance Coleman is still seeking.
Last season, Kelly Smith & Travis Thompson won the Superboat Light class in Rayglass Boats, have started this season with a second at Taupo and a win at Gulf Harbour and will again be the team to beat in this closely contested class. Having four 28-foot skater catamarans in the one class is fantastic, what would be even better would be to have all racing at there best potential on the one day; something that has eluded this field to date. Doosan Construction Equipment, Cary Gleeson & Sam Fillmore showed a lot of improvement at Gulf Harbour and will be aiming to go one better at Maraetai, while both Wellingtons, Grant Smith (Additive Racing) and Auckland's Bob Smith (Family Boats) will be looking to get their season back on track after disappointing results at Gulf Harbour.
This season the 60 mile race has five different classes running from the impressive and very noisy Classic Class boats with the legendary Jesse James returning to the sport after a two season lay off to the affordable and extremely competitive formula Honda class. Chris Neal (Spirit of Cheyenne) and Mike Cameron (Marine Workz) sit at one win a piece in the classic class and will both be keen for bragging rights on there home turf, but we may see something special this weekend from either Exception to the Rule (Jeff Weake) or Jesse James (Grant Valder) to throw this class wide open.
Hoping to continue his winning way in the Sports 60 class will be Greg Brinck in Konica Minolta. Like Turner in Sleepyhead, Brinck has looked in a class of his own, although I'm sure Tim Fellows in Stealth Powerboats would love to turn the table this weekend.
Tony Beetham in Topline Builders will be hoping to continue his battle in the Super 60 class with Tauranga's Mark Diggleman in financepoint.co.nz. This particular class has the potential to be extremely exciting; with one or two more boats competing would add to the spectacle.
Two rounds in the formula Honda division and two different winners and I wouldn't be surprised to see another victor at Maraetai such is the closeness of this class. We haven't really seen Mark Helms in Miss Electropar in full flight yet or 2006 champion Mike Urquhart in Light Industries, both teams will be desperate for a win at Maraetai. Early round winners, Cougar Marine (Michael Smith) and Building Solutions (Michael Knight) will be hoping that youth and enthusiasm will continue to hold them in good stead over their more experienced opponents.
Racing gets underway at 2pm with all boats on public display from early Saturday morning. Boaties keen to view the race from the water would be advised to anchor on the inside of the race course immediately outside the Maraetai Beach boating club where patrol boats can direct you to the best possible and safest vantage point to ensure the race competitors have clear sight of turn buoys.
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