Powerboats: Title dream comes true ... 30 years on

Aucklanders Wayne Valder (left) and Chris Hanley prepare for their victory lap. Photo/Glenn Taylor

Auckland powerboat racer Wayne Valder realised a long-held dream in Napier when he claimed the New Zealand Offshore Powerboat drivers championship for the first time.

Saturday's success had taken 30 years he reckoned, but the passing of such time hardly makes him a veteran. He's still just 44.

Mentored by uncle Stan Ash, he first raced at 15 in something significantly smaller than the Superboat entry ProFloors with which he and co-driver Chris Hanley won the title.

They did so by making sure the catamaran made it around the course in the two half-hour races of the sixth and final leg of a series which started on Lake Taupo at the end of January.

They won both races, and snatched the title from previous series leader Ararimu Free Range, who did not compete in Napier, withdrawing along with the rest of the three-boat Fletcher family team after one of their boats crashed in a non-series race on Waitemata Harbour a week earlier.

For most of Saturday's first race, in mainly ideal conditions on an anti-clockwise course from Ahuriri to north of Westshore, ProFloors, who had won the Napier race a year ago, match-raced with Red Steel No1, who had undergone a significant re-imaging hours before the event.

Raced by John Shand and Steve Jellick, it started the day as Total Access, new decals being affixed during the morning at the water's edge beside the Napier Sailing Club ramp.

ProFloors powered away to win the first race, and was completely in charge in the second, lapping most of the 15-boat field.

Valder was among those relishing the chance to compete in the Napier race, which he first contested about 1989, in a 17ft Vista craft, barely half the size of the modern race, which started as the first Sleepyhead raced by former multiple champion Peter Turner.

"Everyone enjoys it here," he said. "It's a good race."

There were no significant mishaps, with all the field completing in six classes from the big-banger Superboats to the sports 150, in which former two-times champion Tony Carson competed as co-driver for daughter Charlotte, but again had to concede bragging rights to the Auckland-based team of Max, Jamie and Shara Carson, managed by Tony's brother,

With the acclaim of "NZ1" now on the side of the boat, Valder and Hanley are off to Australia to start a six-race series, which ends in November, with the aim of putting "Aus1" on their boat.