The title battle starts now!

Round Mountain Raceway, Cabarita Beach, NSW
11 July, 2010
words | Sean Henshelwood 321Ignition Magazine

Coming into the third round of the Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships at Cabarita Beach [July 10-11], no one team had stamped their authority on the series despite some early pre-season favourites. For a number of drivers, Cabarita couldn’t arrive quickly enough after a mid-season break of some 14 weeks left many desperate to get back on the water, and it showed.. 47 entries was a series record, and there were still a number of 2009 teams still sitting on the sidelines. Sadly, a number of expected entrants failed to arrive including Dean Finch who suffered a recurring oil seal leak on his twin-turbo 475ci powerplant which had been rebuilt in the days prior to the event after a massive detonation at Temora during the opening round.

“We probably didn’t have the preparation time any of us wanted in the end,” Finch’s highly regarded engine builder Darren Farr admitted at Cabarita. “We did the job though and Dean put it into the river only to find a leaking seal [in the back of the engine]. The way it is plumbed and put into the boat, it’s not a five minute job to remove the engine, and with so much at stake, he elected to pull the pin and make sure it’s 100% before Maryborough in September. We’re all disappointed, but sometimes that’s motor racing.”

Another championship contender in much the same ‘boat’ was reigning world and Australian Group A champion Slade Stanley.

“We’ve had the engine back at Moe Engines a couple of times this week with a similar problem,” Slade shrugged. “We just can’t seem to get it sorted. We found out what was wrong from the world titles last year - a warped manifold which caused other problems with valve seating etc.. We thought we’d solved it, but here we are still chasing our tails.”

In the end despite a couple of runs on Saturday, Stanley elected to park ‘Hazardous’ and rejoin the team with whom he’d won the Griffith round [and placed second at Temora], ‘Canberra Floorcraft’.

Of the contenders the big question was how competitive Greg ‘Crusty’ Mercier would be after two successful Queensland championship events which allowed him to achieve some valuable on track time and sort his new injected 500ci powerplant - and its tendency to self combust. “We’re pretty right now,” he grinned, “those two extra rounds between Griffith and Cabarita gave us the time to sort the fuel system and work on tuning the boat, so this weekend we can see where we really sit amongst the established stars.”

Day one, as has been the case for the opening rounds of the national championships, is ‘Dash 4 Cash’ day, this time proudly supported by Phonsy Mullan’s RAM-JET.

Despite Daryl Hutton winning the ‘Dash’ at the opening two rounds of the championship, it was Mick Carroll who sat at the top of the timesheets after the three cumulative qualifying rounds, his consistency putting him clear of Hutton, although once the finals started, Hutton recovered for his third round win in succession, Carroll failing to finish after going the wrong way on his final lap. Despite Hutton’s win, he was almost a second off his qualifying heat best. “What was the point.. Once Mick was out, we just needed consistency,” Nutsy [Hutton] shrugged after the final. “I do like taking money off Phonsy though, that was a nice touch.”

Second in the final went to Greg ‘Crusty’ Mercier, who was comfortably clear of event sponsor, Phonsy Mullan, the RAM-JET team still coming to grips with their new jet unit. “This is an all new unit with driver adjustable trim”, Phonsy confirmed. “It’s a bullet off the start, but takes some getting used to on the track. We’re also working on a new style of muffler to keep the sound down, so that’s taking some time to tune as well, but it looks like we’ve got the engine sorted, so that’s something. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, I think we’ll be in with a good shot.”

One team that sadly would not make day two was Melton’s ‘Jackhammer’ crew Jody Ely and Adam Raverty. “She’s finally let go,” Jody Ely lamented after failing to finish the third qualifier. “The little 400 has done some seriously hard work at the hands of two drivers, so it’s probably no surprise. We’ve kept it well maintained and it gave us no indication it would let go. We’re lucky though it stopped out on track where it did, so there’s no damage to the boat - it could have been a lot worse..”

Sunday dawned fine after a mixed day on Saturday and plenty of rain in the week leading up to the event. That allowed teams to concentrate more on boat handling than engine performance. “This part of the world normally throws a curve ball at you with jetting and the like,” Crusty Mercier admitted, “but today doesn’t seem too bad, we’ll keep an eye on things as the day goes on though.”

As he had done on day one, Daryl Hutton was quick from the outset, and had a days racing under his belt, so knew he had an early advantage over Stanley who knocked him off the top step at Griffith. Stanley was second fastest to the reigning Unlimited champion in every qualifier, but just a second quicker than Mercier.

Mick Carroll had an off in the opening round, which surprised a number of people, himself included, but he was quickly back into stride and comfortably made the final six. Phonsy Mullan’s weekend took a turn for the worse in round three after setting a pretty competitive opening half of the lap. “The boat would just walk sideways on some corners, which made things very interesting,” Phonsy admitted afterwards whilst reviewing an 18 inch long gash in the nose of the boat. “We were only a fraction off line but we got caught and it threw us out. The boats’ not too bad, and if we can find a welder we’ll make the final six, but it’s not where we want to be.”

Sadly for Mullan the team were unable to make repairs in time for the finals, but they were able to seal the boat well enough to complete the final lap for valuable series points.

After a strong run, Greg Mercier too was looking for valuable points, but he too failed to make the final after coming within metres of his best time of the weekend.

“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.”

After a casual start to the day, it was nice to see ‘Castrol Edge’ team owner Peter Freckleton back into the final six, the Mildura veteran grinning from ear to ear after a number of ‘leisurely’ laps in qualifying. “Snuck up on ‘em huh,” he beamed post finals. “We’ve detuned the boat a little for the weekend, because the tight nature of the circuit means that over 1000 horsepower is probably a little too much, but it’s been a dream to drive. It’s also nice to throw in a result as an old bloke, keeps these young guys honest..”

The upshot of a tight final six saw Hutton [44.101], Stanley [44.870] and Carroll [44.998] separated by less than a second, setting up a tough final.

Neither Stanley nor Hutton were holding anything back, and at various times throughout the day showed just what a knife edge they were on, often bringing sighs of disbelief from the amassed crowd. “This one’s going to be tough,” Hutton admitted prior to his final run, and he wasn’t wrong. In the end he ran last of the three boats, and knew he’d be throwing his best lap together after both Carroll and Stanley all but matched their top six times. Hutton though showed he was up to the task, stopping the clock in a sub 44 second lap which brought screams of delight from the crowd.

“How’s that eh,” he grinned afterwards. “Not bad when you’ve got three boats within a second of each other. That’s racing at its best. Slade is always tough to beat, and whilst I held him at bay all day, I knew I’d need a good lap in the final to ensure the win.”

From Stanley’s perspective the result keeps him within reach of the championship lead, but the reigning Group A world champion was lamenting the loss of ‘Hazardous’ and what might have been. “I’m super thankful of the support that Paul, Darran and Billy from ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ have given me,” he said, “but I really would like to be in my own boat. Around here with the 400 we would have been in with a chance but we’ll never know. This is a good result and I don’t think we’d have caught Daryl even if I’d had all day yesterday in the seat. We’ll go away and regroup and see if we can’t get the new 500 together in time for Maryborough.”

2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships
Round three, Cabarita Beach, NSW (July 10-11)
1. Daryl Hutton (60 points), 2. Slade Stanley (55), 3. Mick Carroll (46), 4. Peter Freckleton (45), 5. Greg Mercier (44), 5. Phonsy Mullan (44), 7. Andrew Page (35), 8. Paul Burgess (32), 9. Adam Raverty (10), 9. Jody Ely (10)

After an outstanding weekend all round, teams now switch their focus to the fourth round of the Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships scheduled for Maryborough on September 4-5.

As ever, you can catch all the action from the 2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships on SBS Speedweek and FOX Sports 'Inside Speed' (check local guides and keep an eye on www.v8superboats.com.au for dates and times).

The Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championship is proudly supported by; Continental Tyres, North Star Mildura Motors Mercedes Benz and 321Ignition Magazine.

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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 (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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