Round 4 Hastings Coming up
The water has barely settled at the Meremere Sprint Bowl, and already teams are gearing up for the next meeting in the jetsprint calendar.
The Riverside Jet racing track in Crownthorpe, near Hastings, will be hosting Round 4 of The PSP NZ Jet Sprint Championship on Sunday 8th March, and it’s bound to be a day full of fun and thrills.
The word on the water is that Peter Caughey is hoping to be back in his own Enzed/Trojan/Total Oils boat, putting an end to some frustrating race days for him after the crankshaft broke during Round 1 this season. He’ll be keen to regain the top step of the podium, and will be worried (no doubt) that Pat Dillon and Steve Edmonds are becoming a little too comfortable up there after their wins in Rounds 1 and 3.
Round 3 Meremere and 34 thousandths of a second
It is amazing the number of hours most teams put into prepping their boats for a race meeting. When those teams are also involved in organising and prepping a track for a race meeting the hours they clock up are phenomenal. Everybody involved in getting the Meremere Sprint Bowl reading for Sunday’s Round 3 of The PSP New Zealand Jet Sprint Championship should feel rightly proud of their achievement because the track, spectator areas and the pit area all looked incredible.
The sun shone, and the corporate areas were packed out. The crowd on the banks looked like they were having a fantastic day and the racers felt the same too.
Meremere, you asked for it, we're back
Well, after the thrills and spills at the ASB Baypark Stadium at the end of January, life has returned pretty much to normal for the drivers and navigators taking part in The PSP New Zealand Jet Sprint Championship 2015 – but in this sport it doesn’t stay that way for long!
After a short spell of rest and relaxation the toolkits will be out once again as teams gear up for Round 3, which takes place at Meremere on Feburary 15th.
Peter Caughey will be hoping for better luck with his boat than he had in Round 2, when he brought in a back-up after the crankshaft went in his boat during Round 1 and even that developed engine issues. With Phonsy Mullan staying back in Australia for this round, Caughey – as reigning NZ and World Champion - must surely see his way to the top of the podium clear.
ENZED Sprint Cup @ ASB Baypark
The second day of an action-packed Auckland Anniversary weekend of racing at the ASB Baypark Stadium was the setting for a new Cup competition and a new race format.
The Enzed Stadium Jet Sprint Cup was born from the seeds of an idea in conversations between Peter Caughey and Leighton Minnell over the last 20 years, which found a supportive and fertile venue in which to flourish when the ASB Baypark Stadium stepped forward in 2014 to host a round of the NZJSA championship. Once Ervin McSweeney and his staff realised how popular jet sprint racing in a stadium could be, all that remained was to secure sponsorship for the event. And that’s where Peter Caughey re-entered the conversation, taking the idea to Roger McGarry. “Peter came to me with the proposal,” said McGarry, the Chairman of the Enzed Advisory Council, “and I thought it sounded like a great idea. I’d like to see similar events being run in more stadiums around the country. It’s good to see racing over 2 days as well, and it creates a great spectacle.”
McGarry credits Caughey with the initial idea, but is quick to acknowledge the team at ASB Baypark who have worked tirelessly to bring it to fruition. “I can’t speak highly enough of Pip Minnell and the organisers at Baypark,” McGarry added, “It’s a fantastic venue, and I would certainly like to see them involved in the same event next year.”