Whanganui's Ross Travers in the Radioactive boat, along with navigator Amanda Kittow, will be right there with the Sprintec Boats Group A class front runners. Photo / Jeremy Ward, Shot360 Photography
Whanganui's Ross Travers in the Radioactive boat, along with navigator Amanda Kittow, will be right there with the Sprintec Boats Group A class front runners. Photo / Jeremy Ward, Shot360 Photography
Motorsport enthusiasts will flock to Whanganui to catch Round 3 of the PSP New Zealand Jetsprint Championship on December 27.
It follows hot on the heels of the Cemetery Circuit round of the Suzuki International Series 2022 on Boxing Day.
After the thrills and spills of the jetsprint championship’s Round 2 at Featherston on December 4, there will be a few teams making repairs to their boats as the six-round series reaches its halfway point. The Shelter View track and rotation is more open than Featherston and there is bound to be some fast and furious racing.
The MouthFresh Superboats class has the largest number of entries, with only six points between the first five boats. Whanganui couple Rob and Ange Coley, in the MouthFresh Superboat, won the second round earlier this month with a superb drive in the final and will be aiming to repeat this feat in front of their home crowd.
Reigning superboat champions, the PSP team of Sam Newdick and Shama Putaranui, will be in a real battle with the Coleys for the top spot. The quality of this field is so high that it is providing the most exciting battles seen in many years and any one of the teams could make it on to the podium.
Two Australian teams, both containing expat Kiwis, will race in Whanganui. Brothers Chris and Toby Edmonds and Daryl Hutton and Mick Parry are double-driving the Broken Arrow superboat. These teams are racing in the Australian V8 Superboats Championship, so have a bit more seat time under their belts than the Kiwi teams.
Steve Edmonds, Chris’ brother, is navigating for Shelter View track promoter Richard Murray in the crowd favourite boat Meaner Machine. Their team is working hard to get Meaner Machine back out on the track after it suffered engine issues at Featherston.
The two teams whose boats had big offs at the second round – the Bar’s Bugs Superboat, of Blake Briant, and Robert White’s Devils Advocate – will be aiming to keep everything on the track at Whanganui.
New Zealand Jetsprint Association president Julia Murray's husband Richard, who is the Whanganui Shelter View track promoter, driving the crowd-favourite superboat, Meaner Machine. Photo / Jeremy Ward, Shot360 Photography
Turbo Extreme’s driver Reuben Hoeksema’s birthday falls on race day and he will be wanting to celebrate a top result. The other teams pushing hard to get back on the podium, after successes in the previous two rounds, will be Blue Flames’ David and Millie Simmons and the Wired team of Aaron Hansen and Julie-Anne Shanks. To round the field off is Phil Dick in The Ghost.
In the Sprintec Boats Group A class, Whanganui’s Ross Travers in the Radioactive boat, along with navigator Amanda Kittow, will be right there with the front runners. Travers is expecting the home crowd to give them a boost and is aiming to climb the podium in this round. PSP team Ollie Silverton and Jess Sit took out the first two rounds.
Another battle is taking place in the MTW Group B class with Nine Lives Racing’s Sam Gray and LJ Hooker Racing’s Bryce Baron both taking a win each. On the Hoof’s owner Karl Brensell did a lot of work on his boat between Hastings and Featherston and it paid off when he stepped up to take the third podium step at Featherston. The other two southern teams – Currie Racing’s Richard Currie and 3rd Time Lucky’s Andrew Craig – will be going hard.
Competing in the MTW LS class, the youngest driver in the championship, Liquid Addiction’s 16-year-old Dylan Edhouse, is looking forward to racing at Whanganui, a track he enjoyed driving at the test and tune day. He impressed those watching that day with his smooth lines, and got progressively faster as the day progressed. Edhouse will be pushing the Link ECU team of John Verry and Leila Burder, who will be gunning for their third victory from three rounds at Whanganui.
Shelter View is New Zealand Jetsprint Association president Julia Murray’s home track and is located on her family farm.
“So understandably there’s more work involved here for me as we prepare the track for the racers, ensuring the tyre walls and fences are secure and the water levels are just right,” Murray said.
“Making sure the track is presented nicely for the spectators is important to me too. At the end of the day’s racing, it is incredibly satisfying, especially when the day has gone well and the crowd leaves happy.
“It will be awesome having Daryl Hutton (Nutsy) home from Australia, since he was involved in digging the Whanganui track out back in 2004. It will be a bit of a trip down memory lane for him, with some good memories and some not so good, as after all you don’t get a nickname like Nutsy through playing it safe.”
The track is located at 598 State Highway 4, Upokongaro. Racing is from 11am to 4.30pm on December 27. Gate sales are adult $30, child $10 and family pass $70, or buy tickets online at eventfinda.co.nz for $25.62 adult, $10.25 child and $61.50 family.
