Whanganui chasing leaders in Mermere

Both Whanganui's Ross Travers (pictured) and Rob Coley finished fourth in their respective divisions at Round 2 of the NZ Jetsprint Championship last weekend.

Fourth were the best placings the Whanganui contingent could muster in a very fast Meremere Sprint Bowl in Auckland when proper competition finally got underway last weekend for the Altherm Window Systems NZ Jetsprint Championship.

It has been a disrupted start to the season with no January round and the opening day in Waitara being rained out in December.

Making up for lost time, defending Mouthfresh Superboat champion Peter Caughey reasserted his authority to fly clear of the other 12 drivers he had to share the points with for Waitara.

He finished the day at the head of the table from Gisborne's Blake Briant, Rotorua's Nick Berryman and then Whanganui's Rob Coley.

Caughey said the rotations at Meremere made for "a serious drag strip".

"The track lent itself to the twin-turbo packages, but we kept making minor adjustments to the jet unit and motor, to get the most out of it."

The clay-based track makes the water muddier and denser as the day goes on, while hot conditions saw temperatures in the pit tents reached 30 degrees - which saw all drivers have their endurance tested when racing in full fire suits.

"The boats sit higher, and feel a little loose and the smart teams fine-tune to try to set up the ultimate boat for these conditions," said Caughey.

"With this style of track it was hard to know who would rise to the top of the points board.
"[Hamilton's] Glen Head was looking fast and his boat was handling nicely.

"Second-generation Blake Briant has to be well pleased with his result, and Nick Berryman, he's raced a long time and had a huge crash last year, so it's a nice reward for him to return and be at the pointy end of the field."

"Rob Coley had a new boat, he didn't have his new motor so was a bit down on power but did a great job."

It was not a good day for expat Whanganui world champion Leighton Minnell, who finished back in tenth.

In the Stinger Group A division, Whanganui's Ross Travers was feeling very confident entering the later eliminators, but succumbed to the pressure when a challenger emerged from an unexpected quarter.

"Got to the Top 5, and our fastest time was a 49.12s, [while] the others were having the high 49s and 50s," he said.

At that point, Taranaki's Neil Marshall pulled off a fantastic 48.5s lap, wringing a lot of horsepower out of his boat and throwing down the gauntlet for Travers to respond.

"I ballsed up a few times in that run and finished fourth," Travers said.

"We could have come close to him if we had a perfect run, but we didn't."

Whanganui's Richard Murray also switched from Superboats to bring his former Group A championship-winning craft out of the garage for a run and finished fifth overall - a good advertisement as he was displaying the Ford-engine boat in the hope of selling it.

Travers said after the wash out in December it had been decided to give the Top 8 drivers equal points, so the fourth placing means they will have some catching up to do.

However, given both last season's champion Sam Newdick and runnerup Briant are now in Superboats, it is possible the Group A results will swing dramatically amongst several drivers, as this was Marshall's first victory in the division.

The action returns to Waitara for the third round of six on February 26.