If you are having difficulties, right click and choose 'Save link as'
HI POINTS Round 4 - January 25th 2009
Martins Bend (Berri), South Australia
Tim May showed everyone how it's done and was the overall points winner
Photo by Terry Smith.
What a fantastic start to racing in 2009! On a weekend just perfect for fun on the river the Berri Ski Club played host to round 4 of the HI POINTS series at Martins Bend near the beautiful riverside town Berri.
Saturdays test session saw several boats take to the water:
Photography by James Lines
The Stanley Boys were trialing an extremely aggressive looking rear wing hoping for a handling improvement.
"The Mob" happy to see their beloved "Old Girl" gracing the River Murray once more successfully ran in a fresh engine built by John Laundy, complete with a new Peterson dry sump combination.
Kym Hankins took the opportunity to get some seat time in his 1500 horsepower Evercraft and most unfortunately broke a pushrod, meaning a complete pull down of the engine will be required.
A fun night at the Berri Resort Hotel resulted in some of the boat racing faithful partying a little too long in to the night. Some dreary eyed crew members were seen keeping to the shade during the drivers briefing at 10am on Sunday, as the sun continued to rise and quickly lifted temperatures above 30 degrees.
The roar of 5 blown alcohol displacement engines soon made sure that everyone was awake with race 1 consisting of The Real Thing, Agent Orange, The Boss, Tuff'e'Nuff and Insanity. None of the guys were pulling any punches either and the crowd witnessed one of the best races of the season thus far..
Point's leader Bruce Jordan exercised his right foot with some authority and easily got the hole shot in The Real Thing which as per usual displayed some frightening terminal speed. By lap two the choppy water began to hamper the drivers and Trevor Stanley moved up ahead of the field. Dave Clark watched the battle for 1st place from a safe distance while Neil Laundy flanked him on the outside in the season opener for Insanity. Tim May rounded out the 5 in a disciplined drive at the back of the field in The Boss.
B.A.D race 2 saw things heat up and the man of the moment was Tim May showing his experience on the race course, out-cornering Jordan who once again had the hole shot with ease. Agent Orange broke down at turn 1 leaving a field of 4 to battle through the rough water. Clark managed to get Jordan on the ropes by laying the power down neatly in Tuff'e'Nuff while The Real Thing leapt out the water wildly. The final turn saw Jordan exit dangerously close to Laundy who'd always been in the chase. Insanity nudged ahead of The Real Thing to take 3rd place in a race to remember.
Photography by James Lines
The 'Black Magic' start boat and crew did a fantastic job
Clark and Stanley were both an unfortunate omission from race 3 and watched on as Jordan stunned onlookers with a spectacular spin at the first turn. May was quickly away to another solid lead while Laundy showed enough experience to leave himself enough room for evasive action and moved in to second place. Jordan completed his laps in third place, adding more double points to his team's total.
Not to be outdone, the green team turned to racing legend Tony Walsh who took the reigns in race 4. The boat however could not compete with the cornering ability of the Stephens deep-v, nor was there enough length in the straights for Walsh to exercise the boats terminal speed. While easily taking care of Insanity and True Blue, The Real Thing finished second to The Boss who made it 3 from 4 and took out 1st for the day. Well done to Tim and his crew, a fantastic effort. Keep up the good work!
Our support classes were complimented by not only WA's True Blue but also the 5 litre boat Old Buzzard. The small boat & Holden 308 combo proved too good in the tight turns for JAC Racing and Proformance and took the chequered flag in all the 5 litre racing. This wasn't without a few hair raising moments with the boat taking full flight out of the water on a number of occasions.
6 litre racing saw Old Buzzard included and was racing closely with True Blue in smooth water. The small boat succumbed to the rough water by lap 2 while the Malcolm Everingham capsule boat sailed through the chop smoothly. Chris Phelps in Bondage rounded out the field with Anthony Barnhard in Bite Me, who was running a brand new engine.
The final race of the day saw the Borg family in their first father-daughter race. Dean Borg took the helm of Old Buzzard while daughter Ellise pedaled Proformance. Dean quickly regained his competitive streak and was soon back to his best in the 5 litre class, easily winning the race.
As we head in to a 4 month break from the series we look forward to seeing all the SA race teams make us proud at the national major events coming in April- the Dorwin Gold Cup and the Jeff Thompson Memorial.
