Adrenaline is beginning to pump as Wanganui boaties gear up for the new jetsprint season culminating in the UIM World Series on home water in February.
The two round Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM) World Series kicks off in Featherston on February 11-12, while the second round will play out at Shelterview Raceway in Wanganui the following weekend.
The world title will be more than an Australian/New Zealand tussle, with Northern Hemisphere competitors also pledging to compete, hopefully including current American champion Cory Johnson, who is actually a Canadian.
Current superboat champion Leighton Minnell, a 41-year-old Wanganui mushroom compost farmer, is serious about retaining his national title as a lead-in to his second crack at the world series early next year.
Minnell sold his "Hummertime" boat to Wanganui sidecar ace Steve Bron and bought Peter Caughey's twice world championship winning boat, complete with a unique hand-built 540 small block engine.
"It's a real weapon. It's won the last two world champs when Peter [Caughey] had it. I've got it humming and ready to fire in three weeks when our season starts," Minnell said.
He won't have it all his own way, however, with Caughey returning to the national series in a new boat.
"Peter is also aiming at the world series and we'll get a line on how his new boat performs when he races here at Shelterview on December 27."
Minnell will also have to cope with a fully charged Duncan Wilson from Waitotara who finished second to him in the New Zealand Superboat Championships last season.
"Duncan has just built a new engine too and will be a real force to be reckoned with. And then there's Steve Bron, who has my old boat humming, and Pat Dillon [from Wanganui], who is always competitive. We are working hard to attract the best on the planet to the world series and it looks likely Cory Johnson will come, along with another topliner from the States," Minnell said.
In his first attempt at the world championships, Minnell finished third two years ago in Australia.
The other two current New Zealand champions will be back to defend their titles, including Wanganui electrician Bevan Linklater.
It took Linklater just two seasons to become the 2011 Lites champion. The 31-year-old will be defending his title in the same boat, with a freshen up in the engine department.
Reg Smith, a contractor from Taupo, took slightly longer to win his first Group A title in 2011, having been involved in jetsprinting since the early 1990s.
Looking to make 2012 his last competitive season, he is intending to finish it with No 1 still on the boat.
Group A is always close and with the likes of Peter Briant, Simon Campbell, Bevan Muir, Baden Gray, Sam Newdick and the driver of the world's only Ford-powered Group A boat, Wanganui's Richard Murray, in the field, keeping the title won't be easy.
Meanwhile, the traditional "under lights" meeting in Wanganui on March 31 is round four of the national series.