Opening day a sizzler

2nd November 2009. Photography by Dale Attwood

Weather at the Adelaide Speedboat Club seems to go from one extreme to the other, and during 36 degree heat our competitors were able to put on a great show for the crowd.

Leading the pack in the Supersport category was a newcomer in an old boat 'Showbags' which seemed to be in a class of its own, almost over-lapping the tail enders aftter three and a half laps. Geoff Cutler in Shortcut led the mono hulls with Adam Stunell (pictured above in his new boat), Kevin Rundle and Luke Thompson rounding out the field.

The J2's enjoyed both scratch & handicap racing and at times suffered in the Northerly head wind that proved rather strong towards the end of the day. Ryan Stunell was racing in good spirts as always and began his championship defence wearing an 'Elmo' mask over his helmet which from the bank gave the appearance of a muppet driving his boat.

A lack of entries for the Modified and Formula Stock divisions saw the amalgamation of the two classes. John Warren in Balls'n'All has showed some improvement and led fellow compeitor Tom Barnhard in his opening race, second only to Terry Smith in Alcatraz who was simply untouchable. Chris Wellington was behind 'Bite Me' and led his class with Ellise Borg encountering problems on board 'Proformance' which required towing back to shore.

The Premier division of course included Insanity driven by Geoff Overall which ran second on two occasions, with Dave Clark in Tuff'eNuff leading the pack.

Newly promoted B.A.D driver Bob Swineburn finally got his chance to race his new boat and he had the GT55 Garrett singing. The new Evercraft seemed to handle well with its new rear wing attatched and easily matched the other boats in speed. The guys were however let down by a fuel surge problem and were unable to close out the days racing.

A safe days racing with plenty of speed & noise was enough to please eveyone who attended. As we look forward to the next HI-POINTS round at Berri on December 6 all race teams are strongly encouraged to make the journey to Martin's Bend. With 6 blown alcohol displacements at last years round at Berri, let's aim at making the next one bigger and better!