Jetsprints: Young guns best of Hawke's Bay crews

Group A crew, driver Andy Ryan (right) and navigator Kariane Allan of Wellington complete a circuit yesterday. Photo/Warren Buckland

Hawke's Bay young guns Jakeb Simmons and Olly Burder were the province's best crew in yesterday's round of the national jetsprint series at Crownthorpe.

Driver Simmons and navigator Burder, who are both 16-year-old, year 12 students at Napier Boys' High School finished fifth in the nine-boat Group B class.

The pair, who are the youngest competitors in the Altherm Window Systems New Zealand Championship, were hoping for a top-three finish in the fourth of six rounds but their pre-event fears proved accurate.

Last week the pair pointed out the open track at Pete Connor's property may work against them.

"We're a little down on horsepower so when it comes to smooth and long rotations like you get at Crownthorpe we're going to be chasing the boats with more horsepower," Simmons said at the time.

"We're a lighter boat so we suit a tighter track," he added.

Despite failing to podium they should have been proud of their achievement in their boat The Flounder Pounder which also made them the best of three crews involving family members yesterday. Simmons' father, David Simmons, and navigator John Verry were ninth in the 12-boat Superboat class in Blue Flame 2.

Burder's mother Pip Thompson and her King Country navigator Megan Brodie, who shared Blue Flame 2 as Thompson's boat wasn't ready for the round, struggled in an unfamiliar boat and finished out of the top nine.

Nine-time winner of the championship and defending champion Peter Caughey, 54, of Canterbury won the Superboat class with fellow Cantab Shama Putaranui as his navigator.

With a time of 42.44s they were .025s faster than Masterton's hubby and wife combo of driver Rob and navigator Ange Coley.

The Coleys race Poison Ivy, a boat which had previously been raced by Hawke's Bay's Graeme Hill in the championship. The Coleys had the fastest time of the day by .2s but they couldn't produce that time in the final.

"At one stage there were eight boats across the Superboat and Group A classes within .5s of each other ... it was an exciting day in front of a good crowd," Connor said.

Palmerston North driver Richard Burt and Whanganui navigator Hayley Huijs did well to finish third in the Superboat class as their flywheel fell off during their final run.

Central Hawke's Bay navigator Tanya Iremonger and Bay of Plenty driver Nick Berryman started the round in third place overall and recorded a top six finish.

Overall placings after four rounds were still being calculated when Hawke's Bay Today went to press last night.

The Waikato hubby and wife combo of Patrick and Jay Haden took a five-point lead into the round on the overall standings in Group B and built on this lead with another round victory in Skitzo.

Second place went to the Taranaki-Whanganui combo of driver Kellie Minnell and navigator Sherie Patterson in Girls Torque.

Taranaki's Bevan Schuler, who races Rotokare Rodent with navigator Sam Fergus, finished third, a placing which should see their eighth placing on the overall standings be improved upon big time.

Canterbury driver Si Gibbon, who races Novus Auto Glass with Wellington navigator Paul Thompson, won the 16-boat Group A class.

Second place went to the Whanganui pair of driver Ross Travers and navigator Shane Travers in Radioactive.

Class leaders, Waikato driver and Auckland navigator Jess Sit recorded their fourth consecutive round win in PSP Racing.

Yesterday's event was one of three major attractions for petrol heads in Hawke's Bay at the weekend.

The others were the Napier-hosted round in the national offshore power boat championship on Saturday and Saturday night's grand national under-25 superstock event at Meeanee.

One petrolhead who attended all three remarked it was just as well the third round in the national motocross championship which was scheduled for Fernhill yesterday was cancelled as he would have had to take two days off work this week instead of one to recover.