Current world champ Warwick Lupton hopes to add the AE Baker and EC Griffith Cups to his trophy cabinet. Photo / Tracey Grant
Lovers of Grand Prix hydroplane racing and those who simply enjoy watching some of the world's fastest boats are in for a real treat over the next eight weeks.
The 2012 Masport NZ Grand Prix Hydroplane Series, which begins this weekend in Taupo and culminates in Auckland on March 25, will include four of the biggest events in Grand Prix racing in this part of the world.
The series gets under way with the AE Baker Cup and Australasian Hydroplane Championship in Taupo this weekend. It then moves to Cambridge's Lake Karapiro for the UIM World Grand Prix Hydroplane Championship on February 4-5, and returns to Karapiro a month later for the running of the 100-year-old EC Griffith Cup, the Australasian Unlimited Unrestricted Championship. The series concludes three weeks later at Mangere Bridge in Auckland with the 87th Masport Cup.
The 2012 Masport Series has attracted some of the top hydroplanes from the United States, Australia and New Zealand, as well as some of the world's best GP racers.
Often powered by 510 cubic inch (ci) supercharged engines, the competing boats will include some of the fastest hydroplane designs in the world. Built from composite carbon and kevlar, they are able to generate an incredible 2500 horsepower and can reach speeds over 290km/h.
That huge horsepower and the skill of the drivers will see the fastest of these speedsters complete four laps of a 2000m oval course in less than three minutes.
At those sorts of speeds, safety is of vital importance. Therefore the drivers are strapped into a fully enclosed F16 cockpit and the boats are fitted with roll cages and bottom hatches in the hulls so drivers can be quickly freed if there is an accident.
Crossing the Tasman to take part in this exciting series is top Australian GP racer Grant Harrison. Harrison will initially be trying to win back the AE Baker Cup, due to be staged tomorrow afternoon, close to the Taupo foreshore.
Awarded to the winner of the Australasian Hydroplane Championship, the AE Baker Cup has enjoyed a long sojourn on this side of the Tasman. Won on Australian waters in 2001 by Kiwi Warwick Lupton in Annihilator, the cup has been here since - a situation Harrison and his fans will be desperate to change.
Also keen to take on the best Kiwi racers are American driver Marty Wolfe and his sister, Elizabeth. Wolfe, his Johnson-Wolfe race team and their grand prix hydroplane Renegade only arrived in the country this week, but are "quietly confident" they can out-race the locals to claim the silverware.
A top US hydroplane driver, Wolfe already has the 2009 American and Canadian championships to his credit. However, with its 468ci supercharged V8, the Jamie Auld-designed Renegade will have less power than its Kiwi and Australian rivals. This means Wolfe will be relying on his renowned driving skills to overtake and outlast the competition.
Elizabeth Wolfe has not bought a boat out for the series, but will compete in Steve Mathieson's modified hydroplane Midnight. Mathieson recently drove the 3-litre boat to an Australasian water speed record of 138.189m/h (222.4km/h). He has generously offered Wolfe the chance to compete in the Marsh Motor Sport Trophy for the 3-litre Hydroplane Championship on Lake Karapiro.
Also arriving from the US to compete in the 2012 UIM World Grand Prix Hydroplane Championship is J. Michael Kelly, another Unlimited Hydroplane Champion, who will drive Peter Knight Snr's old boat The Boss, in which he finished third in the 2009 UIM GP Worlds.
Knight, one of New Zealand's most successful GP racers, is keen for his Knight racing team to win both the world championship and the century-old EC Griffith Cup, and has built two new engines for Kelly.
However, before Knight can get his wish, Kelly will have to get past a fairly impressive line-up of local racers, headed by current world champion Warwick Lupton and his Kiwi Annihilator Racing team. Lupton, from the South Taranaki town of Waverley, will compete in Annihilator race boats and be joined by son Ken in Annihilator 3, cousin David Alexander in Annihilator 2 and Chris Picard in Lupton's original Annihilator.
Another Kiwi sure to be in contention is current EC Griffith Cup-holder Scott Coker, from Otorohanga, in Fair Warning.
Unfortunately for local fans, top Auckland driver and current AE Baker Cup champion Graeme Weller will not take part in the 2012 Masport Series. Weller sold his boat, G-Force, to the Baker family of Australia at the end of last season and, while he was scheduled to drive the boat for them, it will not be ready in time. Weller says he will watch the action from the sideline and be race-ready if the opportunity arises for him to drive.
Other attractions for "maritime petrolheads" this summer include the four-round Formula One Powerboat tour and the 2012 NZ Offshore Powerboat Championship.
After the cancellation of the first race of the offshore season in Tauranga, due to debris from the Rena, the 2012 championship gets under way this weekend, also on Lake Taupo. It moves to Gisborne on February 4; Beachlands on February 18; Napier on March 17; Whitianga on March 31; Wellington on April 14 and Auckland on April 28. A new date for the cancelled Tauranga race may also be added before the end of the season.
The New Zealand Formula One Powerboat tour will begin on Lake Karapiro on February 4-5, return to Karapiro on March 3-4, move to Lake Rotoiti on March 17-18 and finish at Lake Kaniere on April 7-8.
Four-time World Jet Boat River Marathon Champion Mark Cromie will also be at Lake Karapiro with his new turbine-powered jetboat. Cromie will be fine-tuning his boat before it is shipped to the US at the end of February for the 2012 UIM World Jet Boat Marathon.
Fellow jetboat racer and current New Zealand No1, John Derry, will also have Mother Energy, which recently took out the New Zealand championships, at the lake, as will Tauranga's Ben Quinn in Coastline Marine.
Schedule
2012 Masport NZ Grand Prix Hydroplane Series:
* AE Baker Australasian Championship, Taupo, January 28-29
* UIM World Grand Prix Hydroplane Championship, Karapiro, February 4-5
* 100 years EC Griffith Cup, Karapiro, March 3-4
* Masport Cup Regatta, Mangere Bridge, March 24-25