Whanganui on the outer in jetsprints

With husband and Taranaki Hardcore driver Leighton Minnell landlocked, wife Kelli Minnell carried on in Waitara and was the strongest performing Whanganui connection on Sunday.

The odds are looking very long for another Whanganui champion after the third round of the Altherm Window Systems NZ Jetsprint Championship in Waitara, with both the main hopefuls dropping out in the early eliminators on Sunday.

Ross Travers and navigator son Shane were on track for a podium in the Stinger Group A class with the top speed in the 13-boat division until their boat was unexpectedly launched out of the water on the first eliminator of the afternoon.

Landing hard, Travers knew if he tried to still channel his Radioactive craft towards the next turn then they would crash, so he took the "safe route" and therefore had to settle for a 60s lap and the slowest time of the group.

"The arse-end of the boat just dropped out," he said.

"The whole boat let loose sideways and just carried on sideways.

"The boat's never done that before. Shane said, 'has the fin fallen off'."

Travers found no damage after the lap and was at a loss why the craft suddenly launched itself offline and skipped over the water, with theories being either his own error or perhaps turbulent wake.

In his first year of Group A after dominating the Group B division, Travers is happy with the progress of his engine, although with Hamilton's Ollie Silverton going on to win the round while series leaders Neil Marshall was runnerup on his home track, he is virtually out of the running in the overall points.

"It will be hard to get in the top three now, but we definitely won't stop trying."

The key will be continuing to develop the craft with an eye to next season's title, given when everything was on song, nobody went faster than Travers' 44.289s time until Silverton broke into the 43s mark in the final run.

"We were top in the first, second and third qualifiers," Travers said.

"The fourth qualifier, we were already through anyway so I just thought I'd try something different going into the hairpin - it didn't work."

In the Mouthfresh Superboats, Rob Coley's admirable preparations in Waitara in the two days before the race also came undone in the first eliminator, with a 55.476s time seeing him eliminated after pulling down consistent 42-43s times in Poison Ivy's previous three qualifying runs.

Last season's runnerup to multiple time champion Peter Caughey, Coley will now also be too far off the pace unless something drastic happens at the top of the leaderboard in the next three events.

Ironically, Caughey was beaten into second place in Waitara by his own Sprintec boat as Hamilton's Sam Newdick picked up his first Superboat round victory since the move up from Group A.

Newdick's own boat, built by Caughey, was damaged at Meremere three weeks ago and its custom made pistons could not be brought in from the United States in time, so the Cantabrian offered Newdick a double drive.

Caughey leads the series with Newdick's win moving him up to fourth, while Gisborne's Blake Briant finishing third in Waitara keeps him in second spot on the points ladder.

Of the other Whanganui connections, Richard Murray made the Top 8 eliminator for Group A's in his Mean Machine, which he is racing at events in the hope of finding a buyer.

His 44-45s times were on pace with the top drivers in the class until a 58.327s lap ended his day.

With expat Whanganui champion Leighton Minnell having to watch the action with his boat still under repair, the spotlight went on wife Kelli, who is in her debut season as a driver behind the wheel of Girl Torque in Group B.

Minnell made the Top 5, consistently driving around the 50s mark, but the other drivers were faster by around 1-2 seconds, with Tapanui's Clayton Tisdall going on to win the round.

Next event in the series is at Hastings on March 12, followed by the annual Whanganui night round on April 1, before finishing in Wanaka on April 15.