Race Day Summaries

WHITIANGA FESTIVAL OF SPEED - DAY 2

Whitianga  |  11 April 2010

Type: Festival of Speed

High tide: 14:30

SUMMARY

The Whitianga Festival of Speed was an event organised by Hopper Developments to promote the Whitianga waterways but also for everyone to indulge in their passion of speed machines. A crowd of approximately 30,000 was in town on the Saturday for the event. Featured in the line up on Saturday was jet ski racing, jet ski freestyle, jet sprint racing, helicopter displays, speedway, lawn mower racing, off road racing, war birds aerobatic display plus offshore powerboat racing etc etc etc. Thundercat involvement on the Saturday amounted to a demonstration Jetski (200hp) vs thundercat (50hp) races round their track which featured Smuggler, Blackpepper, Dodge and Blue Cougar but in the flat water thundercats could not compete against the horsepower difference.

Next Thundercat race was the Launch race whereby 6 launch owners ran down the beach, loaded themselves into 6 thundercats and were transported to their vessels anchored offshore. From here they raced their boats around a triangular course before returning to the thundercat at which point they were returned to shore where they ran up the beach and finished between the thundercat crashpad finish line. The antics of the launch skippers not used to thundercats kept the crowd entertained.

Immediately following was a Skydiving / thundercat / jetski race where Steve (Plumbquick) Aran (Blue Cougar) and Sam Harvey (Jetski Racer) tandem skydived from 8000ft out of the Warbirds DC3 landing on the beach, ditching their skydiving gear then donning helmets and life jackets and completing 2 laps of the jet ski race course on the water with the skydiver as co-pilot. Unfortunately jet ski horsepower again won out.

Sunday was a full on club race day for thundercats with 18 boats entered. Despite flat water conditions with no wind a crowd of at least 2000 positioned themselves on the beach to enjoy the spectacle that is thundercat racing. After a helicopter vs Jetski race to open events, racing began immediately after on time at 11am. 5 sets of heats kept the crowd entertained as Race Director Gary Morrison ensured the day ran smoothly and efficiently. Due to the flat water, starts were critical and as a result placings due the randomness of the heat draws were varied. Winner at the end of the day was again the super lightweight crew in Smuggler followed by the slightly less lightweight crew of blackpepper and in third place an excellent result for the father and son team (Hayden and Brian Elmsly) in Robert Page Engineering. Other notable points of the day were:
1. 6th place for the rookies in Charged whose running speed to the boat was exceptional. However it was later determined driver Renzo’s age was 1/3 that of several of the older drivers. (Perhaps a zimmer frame race could be in order).
2. Hells Pizza who replaced both driver and co-pilot with a lightweight crew and showed exceptional pace. However when heavyweight Shaggy returned to drive in the last race he managed to hit the centre of C buoy flipping the boat end over end for the only (spectacular) flip of the day.

The day was enjoyed by all spectators on the beach, many who partook in the rides afterwards which were a great promo for the sport. In addition a film crew from Discovery Channel in Canada were covering the thundercat event and had a great day on the beach. A tribute must go to Gary Morrison and his team of marshalls as numerous comments and feedback came back as to the professionality of the event management.