Wilson loses his runner-up placing

TROPHY GONE: Hayden Wilson had his runner-up placing at the Shelterview round in Upokongaro taken away after officials allegedly gave him the wrong timeframe for repairs to his White Noize boat.PHOTO/FILE

WHANGANUI jetsprinter Hayden Wilson has lost his runner-up placing from the Shelterview night round of the PSP NZ Jet Sprint Championship after a protest to the NZ Jetsprint Association executive committee was upheld this week.

The re-allocation of Biolytix Group B class points to Te Awamutu's Paddy Haden and Owhango's Tim Edhouse has also had a detrimental effect to Whanganui's defending champion Ross Travers, who is now six points behind Haden instead of five heading into the final round at Featherston on April 24.

Blowing an engine bearing on the main jet unit meant Wilson and navigator Chris Hausman were not beside the water when the Top 5 eliminator started on Saturday evening.

Wilson said he was incorrectly told he had 10 minutes to fix the problem, as opposed to the official five allowed in the national series rules.

The White Noize boat was put in the water within the 10 minutes, and Wilson finished second quickest behind Travers in both the Top 5 and Top 3 eliminators - the latter raced with four boats when Edhouse was included after protesting Wilson breaching the time limit for making repairs.

Ultimately, the committee decided this week to hand Wilson an official Did Not Start (DNS) for the Top 5 eliminator - dropping him back to fifth and elevating Haden and Edhouse to second and third respectively.

Wilson is frustrated by the decision as he said they followed instructions exactly from the officials at the entry ramp and are now punished for their error.

"They give you the time limits, that's what you work to. It's hard to get there in five minutes when you're told you've got 10."

Wilson bears no ill will towards Edhouse, who still dropped back from runner-up in the series to third behind Travers, yet remains in outside contention for the title.

"Tim, he shouldn't really miss out. They made the call. I said, 'we both can be disadvantaged from it, but put us both through to the Top 3, which is what they did on the night."

Yet the Whanganui driver said he has not had a proper explanation about the officials' error.

"I ended up sending them an email on Monday night. The secretary passed it on to the executive. I got an email on Tuesday, not really telling me anything, apart from making it better for knowing the rules beforehand.

"Obviously the rules are the rules, but they made the [10-minute] decision on the day - two guys from the executive."

As Wilson was virtually out of contention of even finishing third in the series heading into the round, due to mechanical issues earlier in the campaign, he felt the fairer decision would have been to let him keep his runner-up trophy for Shelterview while still giving Edhouse the competition points.

"I wouldn't have worried about that. The points didn't matter to me, we just deserved to be on the podium for the night."

Wilson also felt sorry for Travers, who will need Haden to fall off the pace even earlier in Featherston in order to have any chance of retaining his national crown. "The way I see it, if Patrick Haden makes the Top 5, then it's his [title]."

The real excitment will be in the headline Suzuki Superboats in Featherston with all top five drivers in contention for the championship.

After series leaders Glen Head and Peter Caughey were both eliminated early at Shelterview with engine problems, the Whanganui brigade of expat Leighton Minnell, Rob Coley and Richard Murray all took their chance to run down the big points deficit.

Minnell is now second, just a point behind Head, while Coley leapfrogs Murray and moves up to a share of third with Caughey, with Murray still right behind them by a point.