Fourth for Whanganui in Hastings

Rob Coley had to settle for fourth place in the Superboats at the Hastings round on Sunday.

The two Whanganui contenders bowed out in the Top 5 eliminators of the Hastings round at the Altherm Window Systems NZ Jetsprint Championships on Sunday.

It was gutting for Ross Travers and navigator son Shane in the Stinger Group A division, as their Radioactive boat was only 0.202s off from making the Top 3 after a razor close eliminator where you could throw a handkerchief over the leading four drivers.

While series leader Neil Marshall of New Plymouth was slightly off the pace with a 48.523s time, the other drivers were all within 0.4s of each other.

In the end, Hamilton's Ollie Silverton (47.203s), Christchurch's Simon Gibbon (47.274s) and Hamilton's Ric Burke (47.688s) made it through, barely ahead of Travers (47.881s).

"It was only two tenths of a second. But I made more than two tenths of a mistake," Travers said.

Silverton would break into the 46s mark during the Top 3 final to win his second round on the trot from Burke and Gibbon respectively.

Crucially, the Radioactive crew have found a slight fault in the machine as they continue to experiment in their first year of Group A competition after previously dominating the Group B class.

"We've just discovered now, with the actual horsepower, it's sucking a lot more water in," said Travers.

"When we go around the left hand turn, it's loading up the jet unit a lot more."

Because of the turning direction of the blades, Radioactive turning to the right was still fine and left-hand issue was not a problem picked up in Group B due to having less power under the hood.

In the Mouthfresh Superboats, Whanganui's Rob Coley and navigator wife Ange would also finish fourth in the Top 5 eliminator after an unfortunate wrong turn on what would be a tough day with their craft.

"Our boat ran like a pig and our last run ended covered in oil...however given the mishaps we still finished up fourth so we won't complain," Coley said on his team's Facebook page.

"It's now time for the boat to take a little trip to be rebuilt and put back together for our next run in Whanganui, April 1.

"We have said it before and we will say it again - jetsprints teaches us all perseverance and patience - it's a race like no other."

Hamilton's Glen Head came fifth after he blew a piston in the motor only three turns from home, and he shut down rather than trying to limp over the line for fourth spot.

Meanwhile, Sam Newdick made it two in a row where the Hamilton racer has defeated perennial champion Peter Caughey, getting a 43.847s finish in the Top 3 final while Caughey made a 44.113s.

Gisborne's Blake Briant maintained his consistent form, coming third with 44.887s.
Newdick is proving a revelation in Superboats, having now won two rounds in his debut season in the grade after being a previous Group A champion.

With two rounds left in the series, the Whanganui drivers will now treat the famous night round at Upokongaro on April 1 as a one-off event where they will race for pride to try and get on the podium.