Trophy winner Lupton aiming for 322km/h

Photo/File

He was the fastest, but Ken Lupton just wants to go faster.

The Waverley hydroplane driver lifted the new Joe Robinson trophy on Lake Karapiro at the weekend for round three of the Acceleration on Water Festival of Speed Tour.

After windy conditions made the lake a little dicey for testing on Saturday, Lupton's Cheetah craft was the top qualifier during the Sunday morning flying lap, finishing in 37 seconds while the rest of the field clocked in between 39-47 second times.

"We were quite a bit ahead of the pace of everyone else so we were pretty happy," he said.

Lupton then won the first two heat races to have the trophy all sewn up.

The third race was a beach start and even though Lupton withdrew after a spin-out on the second lap, the winner's flag was still collected by a family member as younger brother Jack won the race in the Annihilator hydroplane. Ken Lupton said while the Cheetah reached 170mph (273km/h) on Lake Karapiro, his personal goal was to reach 200mph (322km/h), which should be possible on the 800m straights on some courses.

However, to do this he wants to rebuild Cheetah's capsule to make it safer, making more room and installing power steering.

The craft still performed well after it had to be refitted following a collision at Mangakino during the NZ Powerboat Nationals three weeks ago.

The Luptons will compete in the Masport Cup at Twizel's Lake Ruataniwha, February 22-23. They will return to Lake Karapiro on March 15-16 for Round 4 of the speed tour, which will be for the AE Baker Cup.