Campbell, 16, shares in Thunder glory

Local knowledge went a long way as the big-bangers came to Napier for the FPG Thunder on the Bay offshore powerboat race on Saturday.

There was Hawke's Bay influence in the 100-mile race victory by the 10.7m Auckland catamaran Fairview, with Hastings man Brenton Rolls in the shore crew and Napier boat Red Steel won the Superboat Lite class.

But possibly the biggest triumph was that of 16-year-old Napier Boys High School sixth former Nick Campbell, co-driver for 60-mile race winner Mike Knight in the 5.8m monohull Auckland District Collections.

He walked barely a few hundred metres from home in West Quay to get into the boat for the first time just minutes before the race, and went home with the biggest success of not only his own five-race career but also the career of Knight, an overall classification victory for the first time.

Campbell's been around boats most of his life, with parents Al and Meryn Campbell on the family boat on Lake Taupo, where he got to meet Napier race stalwarts Ken and Colleen Carson and racing sons Tony and Wayne.

It was another first family of offshore, the Smiths of Wellington, that gave him his first chance in a race boat in Gisborne last year and hasn't looked back.

"I'm hooked," he said, the victory a bonus on top of the offshore racing thrill and the sport's camaraderie.

On Saturday, the 60-mile fleet raced seven laps anti-clockwise on an L-shaped course, south from the start off Westshore, across the Ahuriri basin, back towards Westshore, north to Bay View and back down the coast.

Collections completed the 60 miles in 1h 2m 49s, averaging just over 100km/h.

It was just 3 minutes and 38 seconds later that Aucklanders Andrew Coolen and Warren Lewis finished the 12-lap, 100-mile race, averaging about 145km/h, and reaching 168km/h on the calmer waters of Ahuriri.

In conditions rougher and choppier than expected, the boat was soon in charge heading for a third win in four rounds of the NZOPBA drivers championship, and a second in a row at Napier.

They beat runners-up Fujitsu (Tony Coleman and Chris Hanley) by over half a lap, went within a few hundred metres of lapping third placed Schick Hydro, with Lewis's brother, Scott, also on the throttle.

Napier's Brooke Faulkner and Tony Carson were next, two laps down.

The races started with a fleet of 16, but lost four on the way, most dramatically Espresso Engineers.

Crew Mike Gerbic and Alan Grant were eyeballing Faulkner and Carson going into the third lap when disaster struck, the hull piercing, and stripping a port side of laminate. They headed straight for the inner harbour, one hull sinking more and more into the water as it was taken in tow in the entrance, water around Grant's waist before the catamaran was tied-up and hauled-out by crane.

Total Oils headed to shore as co-driver Simon Taylor jarred his back in the 60-miler.

"He was screaming down the intercom, and he wanted to keep going," said older brother and driver James Taylor. "I decided to pull the pin."