KEY POINTS:
Introduced in late 2004 - just in time for last year's season with just three boats - Formula Honda had grown to 12 for this season. When the 2007 championship starts with Thunder on the Great Lake at Taupo in January there will be at least 20 boats
on the start line.
The addition of the Hondas to the race fleet means there will be more than 40 offshore racers in action for the new season.
Honda Marine general manager Martin Wylie says the formula has become the largest one design class in the world. Formula Honda here is based on the locally designed and built Sonic 1900 SS ski boat powered by a stock Honda BF150 2.4 litre four-stroke outboard. The class is strictly one design with only limited modification allowed.
"This is not chequebook racing," says Wylie. "Over the past two seasons we have seen some amazingly close racing with the winners being the best crew not the ones with the most money to spend, which is the case in a lot of motor racing."
The series winners get a bonus prize of a trip to England to race in a round of Britain's Formula Honda series. Last year's winners Chris Bartlett and Mike Urquhart fought right through to the second last round in Auckland to grab the title. Along the way there were different winners over the eight races.
Travis and Carl Thompson, in Team Honda Marine, proved dominant in the roughest water, winning both the Wellington and Napier events. Bartlett and Urquhart, in Light Industry, showed almost everyone a clean transom in the calmer races.
At the beginning of this year Honda Marine bought the moulds from the original builders and the rights to the Sonic 1900 SS name to ensure the future of the class. Bartlett Marine is now building the Sonic solely in the Formula Honda Offshore Racing Championship configuration. There have been subtle changes to minimise maintenance and internally strengthen the hull. And previous owner options have been included as standard.
Championship director Stuart Roberts says the motors carry the five-year Honda Marine warranty even when racing.
"One of the interesting aspects of the class says Roberts, "is that Formula Honda has proved to be a true family class. Some of the teams are husband and wife, others father and son or daughter. It's a boat that can race on Saturday and go skiing on Sunday - the perfect combination."
The 2007 Formula Honda series will take in all eight venues of the New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Association Championship. First race is at Taupo on January 28 then Maraetai, February 10; Gulf Harbour, February 24; Wellington, March 10; Tauranga, March 24; Napier, April 14; and Whitianga, April 28 wrapping up in Auckland on May 12.
A new Formula Honda Sonic 1900 SS hull is $27,000, including GST. Add a Honda BF150 2.4 litre double overhead camshaft 4-stroke VTEC outboard and put the rig on a single axle unbraked trailer ready for both family water sports and the race track and the total comes to $63,000 including GST.
Roberts says there is still time to get an order in and be ready to race when the series kicks off in Taupo next year.