NZ Powerboat Championship » Sleepyhead win in Convincing Fashion

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»» “Fairview Windows & Doors” with first overall win

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Sleepyhead win in Convincing Fashion

27.01.2008

Sleepyhead win in Convincing Fashion © Philip Hoskyn for NZ Offshore

Current national offshore powerboat champions, Peter Turner and Craig Archer won the opening round of the Cougar Marine / Inex Metals national series held on Lake Taupo in convincing fashion yesterday afternoon, when they lead from start to finish and in doing so sent a major warning to all competitors that you will need to right on song if the championship title is to relocate from it home in the Eastern Suburbs of Auckland. The powerful Sleepyhead team got off to an absolute flying start and lead from PlaceMakers and Fairview Windows & Doors by approx 300 meters by the time they past the start / finish line for the first time. This was a lead they were not to relinquish at any stage during the twelve lap, 100-mile race.

Sleepyhead win in Convincing Fashion © NZ Offshore Powerboat Association

Whilst much interest in the lead up to the race focused on the new 35-foot Douglas Skater of Auckland’s Tony Coleman and Grant Valder, racing under the Cure Kids name to draw awareness to this charity, it was the six times national champions Peter Turner who was quickly to remind the large spectator crowd who gathered along the lake front that the Sleepyhead team were keen to not only retain their Taupo title but you may also need more than an American designed boat to wrestle the NZ1 number from the Sleepyhead team. Coleman & Valder were in fifth place behind Pro Floors Racing early on but did manage to get past on lap 3 to assume fourth place, a position they remained in for the rest of the race. The PlaceMakers team would be quietly happy with their third placing after having to repower the 32 foot Skater with the now standard Mercury 525 EFI Twin V8 engines and Merc Cruiser # 6 drives, much of the race being a learning experience for the Shores / Carson combination.The Lewis brother (Fairview Windows & Doors) would also be extremely happy to finish on the podium in second place having past the PlaceMakers team on lap five. They ended last season with a number of mechanical failures, but it now seems that these may have been sorted during the off season.

2007 Superboat Light champions, Kelly Smith and Travis Thompson (Rayglass Marine) were looking likely to repeat where they had left off from the final round in Auckland last May when they lead for the first six laps of the 100-mile race from Grant Smith & Dave Aldridge in Addictive Racing, however the experience of the Addictive team showed when they were able to get past their younger rivals to win the class and finish in sixth place overall. Rayglass Marine settled for a well taken second place with a fine performance coming from new kids on the block, Cary Gleeson and Sam Fillmore finishing in third place in their 28-foot Skater catamaran Doosan Construction Equipment.

The 60-mile field included five Classic class entrants, the V8 boats clearly making a lot of noise and proving to be an exciting class to be involved in. Chris Neal led for much of the race, until he suffered engine trouble, allowing Mike Cameron in Marine Workz to hit the front and not only win the class but the overall 60 mile race. Tauranga’s Mark Diggleman in Finance Point came home in second place overall and took line honours in the Super 60 class. Former National champion Tony Carson from Napier looked impressive in his 36 foot Scarab finishing in third overall and second in the classic class and is a welcome additional back to the sport. After spending the past three seasons in the formula Honda class, Greg Brinck clearly demonstrated that he will be extremely hard to beat in the Sport 60 class easily winning in his new Konica Minolta boat from Tim Fellows in Stealth and John Purchase in Eliminator, while Tony Singe took the hono urs in the Sports 60 restricted class in his Bat Boat Family Boats. Wellington’s Michael Smith continued on the winning form that Chris Bartlett demonstrated last season in Bartlett’s old Sonic boat now named Cougar Marine to record his first ever class win in the formula Honda class, from Michael Knight in Building Solutions and Michael Urquhart in Light Industries respectively.

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