FINAL (Round #5) Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships
Hi-Tec Oils Park, Temora, NSW
30-31 October, 2010

In what was the hottest final in the history of Australian jetsprinting, there was nothing separating the title protagonists with two of the three classes ‘wide open’ after the opening day of competition at Hi-Tec Oils Park, V8 Superboats Temora; the SGA Engineering DASH 4 CASH.

After four straight finals victories in the Unlimited Superboat DASH 4 CASH, reigning national champion, and Continental Tyres series points leader Daryl Hutton was a surprise omission from the top step of the podium on Saturday - the little big man of Australian jetsprinting – 2008 champion Dean Finch was back, and boy was he fast, the twin-turbo 475ci Farr Faster built powerplant pushing Finch to a level that for this weekend at least, was a step too far for any of his opponents.

In the end Hutton held on for fourth, but an ominous sign was the once again ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ mounted Slade Stanley was classified equal second with Hutton’s 2009 nemesis Mick Carroll…

Whilst the Unlimited Superboat class was playing out a promising final round, with Stanley and Hutton separated by just five points on the adjusted scale (the final championship points are scored from the four best results of the five contested rounds), a lot of the focus on the final round was for the championship battle in the Group A class.

Heading into the final round it was a five horse race between (on adjusted points) points leaders Brooke Dixon and Darek Sygidus, and Ted Sygidus, Rohan Smith and Rob Colman – the five drivers separated by just six points…

Things didn’t start well for Colman and Smith in the DASH however, Colman suffering a major mechanical issue which saw feverish modifications to ‘team-mate’ Mick Manini’s boat for Sunday to keep the popular Mildura native in the hunt, whilst Smith was AWOL on Saturday after struggling to find the power he needed from his engine pre-event, prompting some hasty modifications; he would arrive Saturday night to face a very long Sunday..

In the end the SGA Engineering DASH 4 CASH was a Triple X benefit, with Ted leading home Darek to take back the bulk of their sponsorship investment, with the ever present Jake Garlick hanging on for third, yet again. For Brooke Dixon fourth was a good result, but the team needed to find some valuable tenths prior to Sunday’s all important final.

For the venues promoters - Phil and Louise Dixon - the opening day of racing at an immaculately presented Hi-Tec Oils Park, saw some level of disappointment -consistent rainfall (torrential at times) kept potentially strong crowds away, after a week of brilliant sunshine, although despite the inclement weather, there was still a strong presence on the hill, testament to the profile the sport has been developing over recent seasons.

Sunday though dawned again with brilliant sunshine after the expected two-day storm passed through during the night, flooding access areas to the circuit, but providing fans and competitors with almost ideal conditions with which to view the final round of an outstanding season – and quite possibly witness the best event ever contested in the sport’s history..

There was an air of expectation in the pits and a generally festive feel as drivers prepared for the opening qualifying round. The nerves were evident as routines became more structured and teams focused on the job at hand, this was pressure at the highest level and any dropped link in the chain would mean certain elimination from title contention.

It was on from opening practice, with valuable points on offer to the title contenders from every session, so consistency counted.

In the 350 Class Shepparton’s Daniel James (Stingray Racing) went through to the final unchallenged and comfortably took the win, and the 2010 championship over emerging star Daniel deVoigt (DEVO 2) and the recovering Colin Bellert (Evil As), a great result for the two Queenslanders who were making their full national series debut in 2010.

With five drivers in line for the 400 Class title, there was always going to be winners and losers, and sadly heading into the finals, five had become three as both Rob Colman and Rohan Smith drifted out of the final three and out of championship contention.

“We tried everything we could,” a disappointed but clearly unfazed Rob Colman admitted whilst watching the championship final. “Tunna-Gut’s hasn’t missed a beat all year, but for some reason we had a drama yesterday, possibly in the valvetrain, so we had to do what we could to get ‘Cool Bananas’ (which became Tunna-Bannanas for the day) sorted for the finals. It was better than it had been all year for Mick, but we weren’t good enough for the top six, which meant we were out of the points race. It’s frustrating but I’ve been in the sport a long time so I know how hard it can be, but to come to the final round in contention for the title means we’re doing something right, so roll on 2011 and let’s see if we can’t shake this thing one more time..”

Like Colman, Rohan Smith too was reflective on a year that started slowly but quickly saw yet another title challenge emerge in front of the 2002 champion.

“Honestly, the way the season started with preparing a new boat in just on a week, we didn’t think we’d be in with a show, and even this Thursday we had the whole boat in bits and doubted we’d be here,” Smith admitted on the difficulties the BTS Racing team had suffered this season.

“We kept working at it though and spent Friday looking for some more power from the engine, but again, for some reason it wasn’t there and it didn’t translate to outright speed. We’ll have a look during the off season and see what we can find, but it’s disappointing again to have come so close.. It can be a frustrating sport some days.”

With Colman and Smith out of the picture, the battle to the finals played out with the two Triple X drivers and local star Brooke Dixon going head to head all the way to the final three. Heading into the top three, it emerged that the winner would be champion.

Post heats the title battle had intensified with Brooke and Darek maintaining the championship lead, and Ted just one point in arrears. With a three point advantage up for the winner, it all came down to the last run of the season.

Ted was first out, the pre-season favourite turning in another flawless performance to set the benchmark at 38.192, two tenths slower than his best time of the day, but more than half a second clear of Dixon’s best.

Brooke was next up and the Hi-Tec Oils Racing pilot turned in yet another consistent drive (38.919) to within a tenth of a second of her best for what would stand as P2, but with Darek Sygidus yet to run.

As he had done all year, Darek turned in a blinder, but whilst it was his quickest run of the day (38.583) it was more than three tenths slower than big brother Ted… The Triple X team went wild, two Group A championships for the team in two years, and the title to Ted Sygidus.

“We worked bloody hard for that,” Ted beamed afterwards. “We stuffed up in the middle of the year after a strong start where we destroyed everyone. Full marks to Brooke though, we threw everything we had at her, and she still pushed us all the way to the final race of the year. To do a 38 around here under that kind of pressure marks her as one of the best in the world, but for us, it’s party time baby – Triple X rules…”

“It was Teddy’s year,” Darek Sygidus admitted with a smile afterwards. “We’re all about team and family, so to come out with a second championship title in three  years and place one-two in the Australian championships is about as good as it gets. I’m really happy with today’s result, and like Ted, I thank Brooke for pushing us all the way to the final, it was a fantastic race and she drove brilliantly.”

“That’s all I had,” Brooke admitted post race. “I can’t be disappointed with that, at the end of the day I wasn’t born into racing it’s something I had to pick up over the years and I learnt a lot from Nathan Pretty (Brooke’s team-mate in recent years), but without him with us this year I had to step up and apply what I’d learnt and really focus hard on getting the best out of the boat. We fell just short in the end, but I think the whole Hi-Tec Oils Racing team has a lot to be proud of, we came so close and we were there with an outright chance.”

With the 400 Class championship decided, it came down to the Unlimited class final to crown the new national champion. As had been the case in 400s the title contenders too met in the last race of the year, after splitting the pack during qualifying.

The spoiler in the whole arrangement though was Dean Finch. His domination of the class reduced the number of points available to both Hutton and Stanley, who both also had to contend with their own dramas during the day.

For the ‘Castrol Edge’ team of reigning champion Daryl Hutton there was some confusion about the location of a leak in the jet unit which was forcing water inside the boat.

“We’re not sure where it is at the moment,” Daryl Hutton admitted with frustration. “It seems the jet unit is sucking air in somewhere which is disturbing the flow, and it’s also pumping water into the boat. It’s not a huge issue, but we need to find it to make sure nothing escalates.”

For Slade Stanley, returning to the seat of ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ things too were looking sketchy during the early rounds.

“Since Cabarita the boat has undergone a few changes,” Stanley admitted, “including the addition of a dry sump system. They’ve had a few dramas sourcing all the parts and the engine only went back in on Friday, so they were late arriving. The weekend started with a vibration which seems to have been about the alignment of the engine with the jet unit, but we’ve fixed that, and now we have a bit of a fuel issue. Paul had the engine cut out at one point and so did I during one of the qualifiers which cost us valuable points over Nutsy [Hutton] so we’ll cross our fingers and see what happens in the finals.”

Fortunately for both Stanley and Hutton they made it through, however for Mick Carroll a frightening rollover in the closing stages of the third qualifier ended his run in dramatic circumstances.

In a scene similar to that which WA pair Alan Carr and Jo Price played out at the world championships, Carroll clipped the apex of the penultimate corner which threw him straight towards the final right hander. Unable to turn in time, ‘Excalibur’ hit the bank and rolled through the spinout pool entry to the pits fortunately landing right way up but temporarily winding Carroll and injuring navigator Yolanda Low’s left ankle. Both were extracted from the boat with shock and bruising and taken to nearby Temora hospital for observation. The pair were back that night though to accept their AUS#3 championship trophy and are well on the way to a full recovery.

For Carroll it hadn’t been his first off track excursion for the weekend, Saturday’s DASH 4 CASH seeing the man who already holds the mantel of best crash at the Temora venue spear through the catch fence at the top of the circuit after a power out. A relatively low speed run down the bank surrounding the circuit saw little damage to the former world championship winning boat, Carroll suggesting that an electrical fault due to the persistent rain may have been the cause of the shutdown.

They were back for championship points day and put in two strong performances to add to the woes of points leaders Stanley and Hutton, both of whom had to negotiate Carroll’s pace and the ongoing demolition of the field by the untouchable Finch.

With Carroll out, the final six saw a straight fight between Finch, Hutton, Stanley, Greg ‘Crusty’ Mercier, Phonsy Mullan and the returning West Australian Jamie Welch.

For Phonsy Mullan his weekend would come to an early end after a strong run with his surprise new engine package. “We’ve done about all we can do with the Procharged 427,” the GM Motorsport boss admitted. “We dialed in so much horsepower that it made setting the boat up difficult.

“Funnily enough our original intention because of GM Motorsport’s involvement with turbo-charging Chevs was to build a twin-turbo 427 and after the most recent round at Maryborough I decided that’s what we should do. It’s different in many ways to Dean Finch’s unit, but a lot of the same issues evolve, mostly plumbing everything to fit, but we’ve done it and it performs well. Typically it was all done at the last minute because we’re so busy at work, so we didn’t have much time to set up the boat, but it’s a lot more user friendly so we’ll get to fine tuning everything and I think next year you should see us back in the winners circle..”

During the final the boat shut down mid lap, but once pushed back into the channel, fired immediately and Phonsy completed his rotation to pick up sixth placed points.

Greg Mercier was next up, his battle with Jamie Welch in the new ‘Natwel Racing’ Mackraft and an almost identical powerplant was shaping up to be one of the fights of the day. Jamie held the advantage through two heats and the top 12, but Crusty wasn’t far in arrears. In the end, the West Australian team grabbed fourth, six tenths clear of ‘Az U Do’ who were still suffering from an intermittent fuel issue.

Dean Finch continued to raise the bar in ‘Loose Cannon’ and went into the final more than a second clear of Hutton and Stanley having set his best mark of the day (34.863) in the top 12. He was electric in the final and almost flawless, turning in an earth shattering 34.604 to all but seal the round victory.

Stanley too turned up the wick in the final, the ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ boat tuned to within an inch of its life, turned an impressive 35.778, his best run of the weekend, and whilst good enough for second, it didn’t give him the points he needed to take championship victory.

Hutton’s final run was essentially a formality, but despite that the kiwi went out swinging as he has done so many times this season to record a 36.920 and his second consecutive Australian title.

“That last one was a bit hairy,” he admitted post race. “We nearly threw it out of the water mid lap just trying for a time. We got out of the old girl all she had to give, and it was good enough. I can’t thank this whole ‘Castrol Edge’ team enough. Without them this wouldn’t have happened. There’s so much effort goes into keeping these things running and on the water, and without their help and the help of the Freckleton’s [boat owner Peter and navigator Jake] I couldn’t do this, so thanks to them.”

As for Stanley he too was reflective on what might have been.. “Honestly we didn’t think we’d get this close to the championship. We expected from the start of the season that we’d do it hard with a package that wouldn’t have matched the top boats. I couldn’t have done it without the support of the Burgess boys, if they hadn’t offered me the drive in ‘Canberra Floorcraft’ this year we wouldn’t be here now, so to them a huge thanks.”

To show his thanks to boat owner Paul Burgess at the season ending presentation dinner, Stanley presented Paul Burgess with his AUS#2 trophy to the rapturous applause of all present.

Whilst the title contenders celebrated and commiserated, the little man of Superboats quietly contemplated what might have been in season 2010 after annihilating the opposition in the final.

“The boat is fantastic,” Dean Finch grinned, “I couldn’t have asked for a better result. We’re still probably a second or two from our peak, but today we had more than enough in reserve. With any luck we’ll be right for 2011 and come back and give this kiwi the hiding he deserves [grins].”

On a passing note, thanks to the championships 2010 sponsors, most especially to Les DeCelis from Tyres4U for his ongoing support, to John Bollins from QTR Tyre Professionals for his unswerving support and guidance and to North Star Mercedes Benz Mildura for the provision of a support vehicle to the AFJSA, with your support and the vision of the AFJSA committee the sport of V8 Superboats continues to flourish.

Roll on 2011..!

As ever, you can catch all the action from the 2010 Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships on SBS Speedweek and Speed Channel’s [Foxtel] '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 and North Star Mildura Motors Mercedes Benz.