Second place at Meremere

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

GISBORNE’S Blake Briant and his navigator Kate Hoogerbrug “got their mojo” back with a second placing in the penultimate round of the national Superboat championships at Meremere, Auckland at the weekend.

Having missed two rounds of the six-round series — which ruled them out as possible championship contenders — Hoogerbrug said they went to Auckland “with no pressure on and looking for a podium finish”.

Mission accomplished; the pair have now talked about competing in the final round at Waitara, New Plymouth on April 14 “to ruffle a few feathers”.

“We hadn’t intended going to Waitara as it coincides with harvest time, a busy time for us, but we were buzzing after the weekend and I’d said there’s a good chance we’ll be going,” said Hoogerbrug with a hearty laugh.

“We can’t win the championships but we can have a say in some placings. We’ve got our mojo back.”

Hoogerbrug admitted things did not go smoothly in the beginning at Meremere.

“In Round 1 we started with a new set of blades, but they were slow so we biffed them,” she said.

“In Round 2 our jet unit seized, but by the third qualifier we were getting better and moved up through the placings.

“In the first elimination race we almost spat ourselves out when we hit some rough water.

“We paid it more respect in the top six elimination and then posted a sub-44 seconds (43.8s) time in the top three, which we were rapt with.”

A series of mishaps almost unseated defending champion Peter Caughey’s title defence but when it came to the crunch, the professionalism of the Canterbury racer, his young navigator — Shama Puturanui — and his crew got him out on the water when it counted, and he finally took the chequered flag.

Meremere is one of the longest, fastest tracks of the season, with the powerful, lightweight craft blitzing around 30 corners in under 45 seconds, and entering the speed bowl at 140kmh — without brakes to stop them if it all turns pear-shaped.