Upokongaro bathed in floodlight for the fifth round of the Altherm Window Systems NZ Jetsprint Championships on Saturday night.
Speed is good, smooth is better.
After a somewhat barren Altherm Window Systems NZ Jetsprint Championships for the Whanganui contingent, they finally had a driver on top of the podium as Ross Travers and navigator son Shane celebrated their first round victory in Stinger Group A, under lights at Upokongaro on Saturday evening.
In addition, Rob and Ange Coley survived a war of attrition in the Mouthfresh Superboats to take Poison Ivy to third and claim their first podium finish of the season.
Travers did it the hard way, coming into what was a Top 5 eliminator shootout to decide the trophy.
As the fifth fastest qualifier, he found the perfect line to set down a faultless rotation drive in his Radioactive craft - posting a challenging 53.575s lap - then watched as one-by-one, the other four drivers could not match it after at least one little bobble out on the course cost precious milliseconds.
Series leader Ollie Silverton of Hamilton got a slight embankment touch on one right turn and small launch in the air on his second swing through the hair-pin in centre track, and that was enough to give Travers the quickest time by a bare 0.018s.
Silverton had broken into the 52s mark earlier in the afternoon qualifying, but racing conditions at Upokongaro change considerably once the sun goes behind the hills and the floodlights reflect off the water, with many drivers struggling to adjust as the eliminators saw several spin-outs once the pressure mounted.
Travers had been faster than Silverton in all but one of the 13-boat Group A qualifying and elimination races, until the Top 8 eliminator when he got a couple of bobbles himself and posted a disappointed 54.264s time - putting him behind Silverton, Hamilton's Ric Burke, Christchurch's Simon Gibbon and Thames' Bevin Muir.
Having seen them all off by less than 1s in the final, specifically by keeping concentration over the final third of the lap when the rest faltered, Travers was delighted his first Group A win was on his home track, after moving up a division this season.
"My first Group B win was here too," he said.
"I'm bloody rapt, the others are dry [engine] sumps, ours is still a wet sump - the Group B [design].
"In that Top 8, I ballsed up a few things, but I knew we could get a second back.
"That was the main plan - just to get out there and be smooth."
Coley was looking anything but smooth when he had a spin out in the fourth qualifier of the 14-boat Superboat class, which ran enlarged eliminator fields for series points because track owner Richard Murray, with navigator Jo Rathbone, and the American team of Kyle and Cole Patrick were competing on one-day licences.
This allowed the likes of Featherston's Scott Donald and Hastings' Graeme Hill to go a little further than they probably should have after struggling with getting lost and having mishaps in the dark, with Hill ultimately crashing his boat in the Top 10.
Taupo's Garry Stephen had one of the more spectacular bangs when his steering went during the Top 14 and he flew straight over two islands before bumping the wall right back in front of pit lane.
Having emerged with no damage from their spill, Coley re-focused and tempered some of his usual aggression, slowing on key corners, to post 52s times.
However he was a step behind the flying Hamiltonians Glen Head and Sam Newdick, along with the legendary Cantabrian Peter Caughey and Foxton's Richard Burt, who was driving the quad rotary turbo for Whanganui's Team Huijs Racing.
Murray's Meaner Machine was eliminated in sixth place during the Top 10 shootout.
Head's crew had to overcome engine issues early in the day, but once they were back up to scratch the 2016 world champion was lightning and posted an intimidating 48.775s time in the Top 10 - the fastest lap since the lights were turned on.
Coming into the Top 5 in last place, Coley did a solid 51.243s run, but it was the previous time posted by Head which had Burt, Caughey and Newdick feeling the heat.
In a stunning turnaround, both Burt and Caughey were throwing everything into it but lost control, with Burt coming out of the water at the top the course and skidding the rotary boat across the fenceline, while the normally ice-cool champion Caughey spun out on the second hair-pin and sprouted flames from his engine before ending up backwards on the right side boundary.
Newdick was going strong, but suddenly his engine jutted on the final corners, with the previous two-round winner holding it together to reach the line in 50.659s before overheating.
It meant Head did not have to match his previous best times, but still made sure of top of the podium with a conclusive 48.983s final run.
Head agreed it had been his best performance since winning the UIM World Series in January 2016.
Thanking his crew for sorting the issues and giving him back a fast boat, he acknowledged his blistering time in the Top 10 would have rented space in the heads of his opposition.
"There's always going to be that, and posting fast times makes people push it."
Coley was glad to finally have something to show for what had been a fruitless campaign, even if it came through crashes instead of being quicker.
"Unfortunately, we're still pretty flat, couldn't get much more out of it.
"We were certainly lucky early in the day with that crash.
"I was worried about the hydraulics, water, but not a scratch [found].
"To be on the podium, we'll always take it. To finish first, first you must finish."
In the eight-crew Group B class, Whanganui expat Kellie Minnell had to settle for fifth overall, as she did not progress to the final Top 3 eliminator.
Te Awamutu's series leader Patrick Haden picked up the victory, seeing off Otago's Clayton Tisdall and Waitara's Daniel Reade.
The championships conclude with the sixth round in Wanaka on April 15.
Results
Superboats: 1. Glen Head (Hamilton); 2. Sam Newdick (Hamilton); 3. Rob Coley (Whanganui); 4. Peter Caughey (Christchurch); 5. Richard Burt (Foxton).
Group A: 1. Ross Travers (Whanganui); 2. Ollie Silverton (Hamilton); 3. Ric Burke (Hamilton); 4. Simon Gibbon (Christchurch); 5. Bevin Muir (Thames).
Group B: 1. Patrick Haden (Te Awamutu); 2. Clayton Tisdall (Tapanui); 3. Daniel Reade (Waitara); 4. Greg Reardon (Inglewood); 5. Kellie Minnell (New Plymouth).