February 23, 2018
SuperBoats turn it on for champs mid-point
Defending SuperBoat champion Peter Caughey hauled his Trojan trailer out of the ENZED team’s Canterbury workshop early
this week, after the Tropical Storm that devastated parts of New Zealand closed Highway One at Kaikoura, just two months
after it reopened.
Taking the long inland route again, his team is heading for Waitara, and round three of the MouthFresh SuperBoat
championship, at the Altherm New Zealand champs on February 24.
Caughey confirmed that the forecast is good for Saturday’s race, “And we hope this week’s heavy rain hasn’t overfilled
the aquatrack, which would obscure the islands round which we race.”
“What a contrast from the Wairarapa track, which was cancelled due to drought!”
Waitara’s Methanex aquatrack is the smallest track on the New Zealand calendar, and the newest.
Caughey says, “The seven-island track rotation will produce plenty of excitement, especially as it’s notorious for
producing some of the trickiest wakes in the sport.”
All drivers will face the same challenge, “But our Sprintec boat design has proven to favour tracks with wakes and
technical challenges, and we hope this will be the case on Saturday.”
Spectators are in for a treat, as 40 boats face the starter on Saturday morning, 13 of them in the elite,
methanol-fuelled MouthFresh SuperBoat class.
“The contenders that we expect will produce fast times are Rob Coley, Nick Berryman, Blake Briant, Aaron Hanson and
Scotty Donald, especially as those last two came second and third at Bay Park, they don’t have outright power, but boat
control could favour them here.”
Caughey reckons Sam Newdick will be relieved his 575 motor is repaired and ready to race, “We expect he’ll be the man to
beat at this event given his form at this venue – he won his first ever SuperBoat sprint here last season.”
As for Caughey’s ENZED team, the crew had found stress cracks in the boat’s intake housing after Baypark’s stadium
event.
Given the stress generated by SuperBoat power, and the fact we have three sprint events in six weeks ahead of us, we
decided to strip the boat and jet down, and add reinforcing.”
Caughey says it’s quite an involved process to do it well, “A bit of welding, a lot of machining, painting and
detailing, and that’s after sandblasting the paint to get a decent weld on.”
“So it’s been a very busy week, all of us working late to ensure the boat was ready to hit the road this morning.”
“It was also a good chance to check the bottom of the boat after the three events it’s completed, and it all looked very
good.”
That’s great news for the spectators expected to pour through the gates come Saturday, ready for a day of high-speed,
mega-power action.
ends