Whanganui's Ross Travers and navigator son Shane made it to the podium in consecutive rounds as they finished the Altherm Window Systems NZ Jetsprint Championship season with a runnerup placing at Wanaka on Saturday.
Facing a challenging Oxbrow Adventures Aquatrack with 36 rotations, Travers was content to follow up hisfirst Stinger Group A division win under lights at Upokongaro two weeks ago with second place to Hamilton's Ollie Silverton, who also clinched the overall season title.
Christchurch's Simon Gibbon was second in the series, while Hamilton's Ric Burke secured third place overall by also coming third in Wanaka.
Ross Travers' emergence in the latter part of the series saw him finish fourth overall in his debut season after moving up from Group B.
Finishing times for Group A boats were around the low 56s mark, with Travers likely missing out on beating Silverton again by only one corner rotation.
Since making some changes after the Hastings round in March, the Radioactive boat had found its groove to come first and then second in the last two rounds, with the difference in finishing times with other boats in the Top 5 usually spread across only 0.5s.
"We're looking forward to next season. We just need more ponies [horsepower] in it now, which is on the cards," Travers said.
"Next year we'll take the training wheels off and get into it properly."
New Plymouth's Neil Marshall, the early Group A series leader, had a crash in qualifying and therefore finished fifth in the series.
Whanganui had one connection to a series Top 3 as expat and former navigator Kelli Minnell completed a solid debut season as a driver in Group B, with her fourth place at Wanaka confirming 3NZ for the season.
Otago's Clayton Tisdall won in Wanaka, while Te Awamutu's series leader Patrick Haden clinched the 1NZ with his runnerup spot, with Owanga's Tim Edhouse third on the day.
Kelli Minnell's husband and former world champion Leighton Minnell confirmed with the sale of his Mouthfresh Superboat to Americans Kyle and Cole Patrick, he will step away from active racing to concentrate on being his wife's trainer and crew, while also running their Methanex Aquatrack in Waitara.
"She's very, very happy with her first year," Leighton Minnell said.
"For a rookie year, she'll get to take out the Rookie of the Year award.
"It's been an awesome year - there's been some crazy results but some hard racing in all divisions."
Kelli Minnell and husband Leighton Minnell. After years as her husband's navigator, Kelli stepped up this season as a Group B driver and finished third overall.
In the Superboats, the sport's Godfather in Canterbury's Peter Caughey made it an 11th national championship with his victory in Wanaka, seeing off Hamilton's Glen Head, who had hoped to get two round wins on the trot, while Hastings' Graeme Hill was third on the day.
Unfortunately, Caughey's regular navigator Louise Blythe of Whanganui was not able to be in the cockpit because her plane flight was among those grounded in the North Island, so former national championship-winning navigator Shama Putaranui stepped back in.
Whanganui's Rob and Ange Coley had hoped to get up to 3NZ for the season after their third placing at Upokongaro, but had to settle for finishing fourth on the day at Wanaka.
Richard Murray, who mixed Group A and Superboat racing this season, did not attend Wanaka.
