It's becoming a pattern for Wanganui jet sprinter Leighton Minnell blow by the opposition or blow up the engine.
In the gap week between the crucial third and fourth rounds of the Jetpro New Zealand Jet Sprint Championships, Minnell's crew has been flat out getting their home made eight-piston engine back to scratch after another frustrating end to their day at Meremere last weekend.
After a snapped drive shaft went right through his oil filter at Upokongaro in December, Minnell had come back to win the January round at Featherston and had wanted back-to-back success to keep alive his hopes of retaining the national title.
Instead, 7000 revs of pressure led to a cracked gudgeon pin the connection between the connecting rod and one of the pistons which nearly led to complete failure.
"Generally when this happens, that destroys everything inside the engine block," Minnell said.
He sensed something was wrong at the start of the eliminator rounds in Meremere and so pulled up, giving Canterbury rival Peter Caughey the chance to take the round and increase his lead in the series by nine points.
"If I hadn't done that, we wouldn't be racing this weekend," Minnell said.
A long shot to fix their homemade engine in five days as its not like you can just go down the street for replacement parts Minnell's team looked to their mechanic Tim Patterson to give them a shot at getting to the Riverside Jet Racing Track, near Hastings, on Sunday.
Tinking away at his Engine Rebuilders shop, Patterson got the block back together by the eleventh hour yesterday. "He's done his bit now," Minnell said.
"The team's pretty tight, to get us going to this meeting is a miracle."
Patterson admitted he had felt the pressure. "It's a feeling of achievement when we do succeed.
"When it's not going good, the whole team feels it."
Minnell had to admit that with a nine-point buffer, it will be a tall task to catch Caughey.
However, the goal is now to win the last three rounds and hope the mechanical mayhem is all behind them. "Then we'll have a beer and say, 'when we were running, we were unbeatable'."
At Meremere last week, Minnell's withdrawal had town mate Pat Dillon as a favourite with his extra horsepower on the very fast rotation.
Dillon wound up second with his time of 55.496 seconds keeping him in third. But once again, when it counted, Caughey scorched the track in 54.277 to take his second win of the season.
In the Group A class, Wanganui's Richard Murray made up for a disappointing third in Round 2 by reclaiming second place by just 0.19s from Queenslander Paul Gaston.
Hamilton's Sam Newdick continued his winning ways with his third straight round victory.
Wanganui's Gerry Linklater seized his chance in the entry level JetPro 400 class when competition leader Brett Thompson ran aground in the Top 12 eliminations. Linklater is now tied at the top of the table with Taupo's Warren Farr, who finished third at Meremere.
Round 4 is at the Riverside track, located in Crownthorpe, tomorrow.
STANDINGS
Points leaders heading into Round 4-
Suzuki Superboat Class: 1. Peter Caughey (Canterbury) 89; 2. Leighton Minnell (Wanganui) 80; 3. Pat Dillon (Wanganui) 77.
PSP Ltd Group A Class: 1. Sam Newdick (Hamilton) 90; 2. Richard Murray (Wanganui) 86; 3. Paul Gaston (Queensland) 85.
Jetpro 400 Class: 1=. Warren Farr (Taupo) 83; 1=. Gerry Linklater (Wanganui) 83; 3. Brett Thompson (Piopio) 79.