After a disappointing opening round DNF on Lake Taupo the previous weekend, Warren Lewis and Steve Whitford in the ‘Fairview Windows and Doors’ Skater Superboat got their 2010 Rayglass NZ Offshore Powerboat Championship campaign back on track with a spectacular victory in Gisborne.
It was the first time in Gisborne for the NZ Offshore Championship in nearly ten years, and another strong line-up of Superboats and Superboat Lights were on hand to put on a show for the thousands of locals that lined the Bay.
Overhead it was a beautiful Sunny day in Gisborne, but a combination of tricky swells and windy conditions further out on the course meant that the teams couldn’t afford to relax for the twelve lap, 100 mile race.
Soon after the start, in what would eventually prove to be quite difficult conditions, ‘Fairview’ and Australian Superboat ‘Team 3’ distanced themselves from Taupo winner ‘Doosan’, and ‘A1 Homes’. ‘Fairview’ and ‘Team 3’ were never more than five second s apart for the first seven laps of the race, with both boats pushing each other right to the limit around the course.
It was a classic ‘Trans Tasman’ battle to watch from the shore and on the water, but then Lewis and Whitford in ‘Fairview’ were able to extend their lead over Team 3 to around seven seconds on lap eight. The duo had just set the fastest lap of the race on the previous lap of 5 minutes and 55 seconds for the 8.4 mile (13.5km) course to extend their advantage over ‘Team 3’.
However, also on lap eight, just in front of the two battling Superboats, the reigning NZ Superboat Light Champions Kelly and Grant Smith in ‘Rayglass’ rolled their boat at the Southern end of the course. The pair had caught a rogue wave while making a turn, but with the assistance from the Marine Paramedics team, both were able to extract themselves from the upturned boat. Thankfully both were OK, but with divers in the water, that meant the race was red-flagged before the scheduled twelve laps were complete. With the final finishing order taken back to the placings on lap seven, ‘Fairview Windows & Doors' were the Gisborne winners from ‘Team 3' and ‘Doosan'.
“This win is a great way to come back after Taupo” explained Warren Lewis after the race. “The conditions were far more difficult than what we had expected from earlier in the day, but again, like Taupo, Steve also did a great job driving in just his second ever race in a Superboat”‘Doosan’ continues to lead the Championship after two rounds on 775 points, followed by ‘Team 3’ (675 points), ‘A1 Homes’ (619 points), and ‘Fairview’ (550 points).
However for ‘Fairview’, the Championship is now a lot tighter after the results in Gisborne.
The next race for the 2010 Rayglass NZ Offshore Powerboat Championship (Round 3) is at Gulf Harbour on Auckland’s North Shore, Saturday, February 20.
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