It's almost 20 years since Napier panelbeater Tony Carson won the first of his two national offshore powerboat racing championships.
But the whiff of triumph is again taunting the 47-year-old after powering the 32ft Superboat Lite-class catamaran Red Steel to a remarkable third place behind two 35ft Skater catamarans inthe season's first round last Sunday on Lake Taupo.
With three bigger boats in the premier Superboat class of the Thunder on the Great Lake, Carson and co-driver Brook Faulkner weren't expecting anything better than fourth in a race won by favourite Fairview, driven by defending champion driver Warren Lewis and new crewman Andrew Koolen.
But at the end of the 12 laps, Red Steel was just 200 metres from claiming second place from 2009 champions Tony Coleman and Chris Hanley in Fujitsu, and had lapped the third Superboat entry, the 32ft Skater catamaran Schick Hydro.
Ready to roll again just a week later, in the second round off Gisborne today, Carson said: "It would be absolutely fantastic to get into the top three."
Carson, whose 1993 triumph was the last time the drivers' championship was won in a monohull, said conditions on Lake Taupo were "as rough as Lake Taupo can possibly get". He believed his extra edge came from experience on the type of "big, choppy water" that the lake provided on the day.
Race watchers agreed, saying Carson and Faulkner "probably saw more sky than they were comfortable with", but they saw enough time on the water as well to lap the three other Superboat Lite racers.
The New Zealand Offshore Power Boat Association is working to reschedule the original series opener which was to have been raced on Tauranga Harbour on last month.
