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American speedway owner H A Humpty Wheeler once said animal behaviour is different at night - it's when they hunt primarily - and that racers are no different.
It will be a new look beast at the Shelterview track in Upokongaro this evening as the PSP NZ Jet Sprint Championship is getting down to the nitty gritty with just two rounds remaining and everything to race for across all three divisions.
Night racing was not held at the Whanganui track last year, and for the local competitors, most of them will be hoping for a better outcome than when the second round of this series was raced in daylight back on December 27.
It was Rob Coley who made national headlines that afternoon, as his Poison Ivy superboat left the spin out pool at speeds in excess of 130km/h and flew up the embankment and crashed through the trees into the next door property, 15m in the air.
On a less spectacular, but equally disappointing day, defending Group B champion Ross Travers and former champion Hayden Wilson had their afternoons end in the pits after a series of DNF's and engine problems.
"That's all history now, we've sorted all that out," said Travers.
"It's good to see Hayden up there as well. Hopefully he can be a buffer between us and Patrick Haden."
Since December, Travers and navigator son Shane have got Radioactive back on a roll with victories at the last two rounds in Waitara and Crownthorpe in Hastings respectively, letting them close the gap to just a point behind Owhango's Tim Edhouse in second place, but still spying the consistent Haden of Te Awamutu, who leads by a 6-7 point buffer.
Ross Travers is still confident of a hat-trick of victories tonight.
"Hopefully, we'll be trying our best anyway.
"It will be very interesting with the new lights. Shelterview has changed their track with the installation of a more powerful lighting system, while they have changed the layout so the pool is no longer the finishline.
"That's good. Everyone will not be complaining about that," said Travers.
"That spin out pool was actually the trickiest part of the course."
Nonetheless, racing under lights can mean the glow off the track water makes some areas look like rotation islands - Travers saying the way they will know the proper lines to driver are the white pegs at the water's edge.
Even then, relying on those means a driver's reaction time will be seven 100th's of a second to decide if they go left or right.
"An eighth of a second, you're too late," Travers said.
Having come third at the last round in Hastings, Wilson is also looking forward to a good night to put the demons from December to rest.
"It's definitely a round to forget for me and Ross. But I'm on top of those things holding me back.
"Paddy's within half a second [in boat speed], so the carrot's there.
"Hopefully the weather holds, it should be good to see a good crowd out there.
"The course will be something different, I've never had a problem with the spin out pool but some others do."
In the headline Superboats, it remains to be seen if series leader Glen Head of Hamilton can continue to hold off the hard charging Peter Caughey, as the world champion from Canterbury recovered from his crash in Round 1 at Meremere to win the next three rounds straight.
Behind them, waiting in the willows, is the Whanganui connection of expat Leighton Minnell, Shelterview's owner Richard Murray, and Coley himself in a two point spread between third and fifth.
Murray said the changes to the track should hopefully make for a faster evening to allow them to get through the schedule faster, so long as there are no delays for crashes - "which is the hard part for some of us".
"We've pretty much doubled the lights really ... as far as wattage goes."
Murray well remembers that as well as Coley's death-defying accident in December, the last night round at Shelterview in April 2014 saw Waitotara's Duncan Wilson's steering wheel come off in his hands and his Group A boat fly straight into the pole holding up the light fixtures, which bathed that section of track in darkness.
"You just never know what's going to happen, that's the beauty of the sport.
"If you tried to aim for a tower, you wouldn't hit it."
But foremost on his mind is being consistent so if anything happens to Head or Caughey, he can capitalise.
That's what happened in 2013 when Murray won the Group A national title under lights at Shelterview after dominant Hamilton competitor Sam Newdick blew a 12-point series lead by taking a wrong turn in the evening's first eliminator.
"I'll never forget that night. I just went for relaxed round, and how much pressure came on me when Sam stuffed up was unreal," Murray said.
"That 3NZ title is quite a big battle going to happen there. We're all hungry for it.
"Leighton has said to me, he's not giving it to me - he's going to make me work forit."
The boats will be on the water at 3pm today and the doors open to the public at 4pm, with the finals likely to wrap up around 9.30pm.
Points after Round 4
Biolytix Group B: 1. Paddy Haden (Te Awamutu) 118 points; 2. Tim Edhouse (Owhango) 112; 3. Ross Travers (Whanganui) 111; 4=. Pip Thompson (Hawke's Bay) 100; 4=. Hayden Wilson (Whanganui) 100.
Altherm Group A: 1. Blake Briant (Gisborne) 118; 2. Sam Newdick (Hamilton)114; 3. Ric Burke (Hamilton) 107; 4. Warren Farr (Taupo) 101; 5=. Simon Gibbon (North Canterbury) 96; 5=. Neil Marshall (New Plymouth) 96.
Suzuki Superboats: 1. Glen Head (Hamilton) 111; 2. Peter Caughey (Christchurch) 109; 3=. Leighton Minnell (Taranaki) 102; 3=. Richard Murray (Whanganui) 102; 5. Rob Coley (Whanganui) 100.