In January 2016 Briant and Hoogerbrug were in a spectacular crash when their new boat barrel-rolled then went end over end before finally coming to rest.
Both were taken to Tauranga Hospital, where Hoogerbrug remained overnight.
“We were really looking foward to this meet,” she said.
“We were disappointed with the racing but happy to walk away and with no damage to the boat.
“We’d gone from the elation of posting the fastest time in Round 2 in 2016 to crashing, so in that sense this race was successful.”
At the end of Saturday’s day/night racing at the Mount — which is not part of the national championships — Peter Caughey collected the trophy.
But even the 11-time national champion and seven-time world champion had trouble with the tight stadium format.
“Because of noise constraints, racing at the stadium had to be finished by 10pm,” Hoogerbrug said.
“Race controllers made the call to do away with one qualifier and run the final from the five fastest boats from the top nine, instead of the usual top-nine and top-six eliminations followed by a three-boat final.”
“We beached our boat at the first corner in our first run.
“We got a little further in our second run but beached the boat.
“In our third run we almost beached again but slid along the bank before posting a time, which qualifed us for top nine.
“The drivers spoke to the organisers after the third qualifying run and the problem turns were made wider. But after losing time in the first race in the nine we made the decision to cut our losses and come home.”
Hoogerbrug said that in hindsight the corners should have been wider from the start.
“Apart from that, the track held together well”.
Briant and Hoogerbrug turn their attention to the third round of the six-round national championships at Waitara, Taranaki, on February 24.
Caughey leads the championship, with Briant third.
