Oh so close..

Rnd#3 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships
Round Mountain Raceway, Cabarita Beach, NSW
July 10-11
words| Sean Henshelwood 321Ignition Magazine 

Despite a frustrating and firey start to their debut season in the Unlimited Superboat class, Greg ‘Crusty’ and Dorinda ‘Mrs Crusty’ Mercier came into the third round of the national championship full of anticipation for what they hoped would be a return to form.

Whilst many of their opponents had been off the water for the mid-season break, the Crustys had been busy sorting ‘Az U Do’ in the Queensland championships, carding two wins from two starts.

From the opening day at Cabarita during the RAM-JET Dash 4 Cash, it was clear that the frustrations of the opening rounds of the season were well behind them.

“We’ve got it sorted nicely now,” Crusty admitted after setting a pretty ‘hot’ time during the qualifiers for the Dash final.

“It starts nicely, we’re on top of the jet unit issues, and the boat is on rails, I just can’t wait to get it on the water against all the major teams, most of whom sat out the Queensland rounds.”

They may have been happy about their performance on the opening day which saw them nett second overall behind championship points leader Daryl Hutton in the final of the ‘Dash’, but their weekend wasn’t all joy, Dorinda Mercier bearing the scars of a slip mid-week which saw her limping around the pits in discomfort.

“If this is the only drama we have all weekend, I’ll tough it out,” she smiled through clenched teeth.

After a welcome second on Saturday, Sunday morning saw the focus shift to the championship and some valuable series points. “Time to get serious,” Crusty grinned, clearly focussed on the task at hand.

Consistency was the name of the game for the ‘Az U Do’ team and Crusty showed the value of the two ‘testing’ Queensland championship rounds, putting himself comfortably third through qualifying.

“We’re getting closer, and the boat setup and handling is phenomenal, we just need to work a little more on the jet and the tuning of the engine, and I reckon we’ll be a regular podium contender.”

Due to a depleted field over the course of qualifying (Phonsy Mullan’s off and Jackhammer’s engine woes), the top 12 elimination final was dropped to the top six and with a couple of the leading contenders striking dramas, Crusty gave it everything he had in the final.

“Boy were we looking good,” he laughed post run after the safety crew returned ‘the shark’ to the water. “We were well up on our best, no question, but I just grabbed the bank in the final quarter of the lap. It was just a matter of millimetres, but sometimes that’s the difference between hero and zero. We’d have had to have been going hard to catch Slade and Nutsy [Hutton] but we would have been close to the mark.

“It’s not [the event] a complete write-off, the boat’s fine and we still salvaged fifth for the weekend, although we should have been third. That said, with just two rounds remaining, we’re still third in the title hunt which for our first year in Superboat and after all the grief of Temora, I really didn’t expect..”

The Az U Do team now prepare for the penultimate round of the national and Queensland championships back at Susan River Raceway at Maryborough on September 4-5.

Az U Do Racing is proudly supported by ACOL Creative Skylight Solutions, MOE Engines and 321Ignition Magazine.

2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships
Championship points (after three rounds of five)*
1. Daryl Hutton (176 points), 2. Slade Stanley (171), 3. Greg Mercier/Dorinda Mercier (138), 4. Mick Carroll (133), 5. Phonsy Mullan (125), 6. Andrew Page (109), 7. Adam Raverty (97), 8. Paul Burgess (92), 9. Peter Freckleton (85), 10. Jody Ely (83), 11. Dean Finch (37)
* (final championship points calculated from the four best point scoring rounds of five) 

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