Fifth not a bad effort, all things considered

OUT OF CONTENTION: Blake Briant and Kate Hoogerbrug’s campaign in the New Zealand Jetsprinting Championship has ended with a top-nine finish at Hastings. File picture by Ian Moss

JETSPRINTING by Grant Miller

HAMPERED by mechanical troubles and limited time on the course, Gisborne’s Blake Briant and Kate Hoogerbrug felt fifth wasn’t a bad result in the latest round of the New Zealand Jetsprint Championship.

Competing in the superboat class, they missed two qualifying runs at Meremere last Saturday after a throttle shaft broke.

The engine cut out in another qualifying run, but they made the top nine and then the top six, although they weren’t able to make up enough time to get into the top three.

Overall, the Harvest Transport Bar’s Bugs team were content.

“It keeps us in the running for the championship,” navigator Hoogerbrug said.

Briant and Hoogerbrug were coming off a third placing in Round 1 in Whanganui at the end of last year.

Briant said the throttle shaft snapped “for no apparent reason” in their second run at Meremere. They patched it up to get through the day.

Missing from the third and fourth runs, the team had their effort on the fifth run curtailed by a fuel problem.

“It was a fairly simple problem to fix,” Briant said.

The Gisborne pair had little time to get used to the course before the business end of the meet.

Hoogerbrug said they needed to cut “quite a chunk” in time to make the top six and even more to advance any further.

“We charged hard and in the first part did really well,” she said.

But they lost time bouncing over wake, went a little wide around a corner and crossed some land, ending up fifth.

The team said on their Facebook page they were happy with how the boat was handling. After their early difficulties, other teams helped them get back on the water.

“Hopefully, the gremlins are behind us,” Briant said.

The Altherm Jetsprint Team were first, Poison Ivy, second and Meaner Machine, third.

The next round in the series is at Hastings on March 3.