HYDROPLANE TROPHY RACE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31307, 1 March 1967, Page 15

HYDROPLANE TROPHY RACE

pOST-A-LOTT, a Cortina special powered hydroplane owned and driven by R. Denson, of Christchurch —shown above doing 80 miles per hour on the Estuary—is one of the 23 fastest 100 cu in hydroplanes in New Zealand which have entered for the Rothmans Challenge Trophy race, the feature event of the speedboat regatta to be held at Pleasant Point on Sunday. Three heats will be run to decide the eight fastest boats to take part in the championship final. A feature of hydroplane racing is the spectacular plumes of water thrown up astern of the speedboats.

Some of the hydroplanes taking part can travel at between 90 and 100 m.p.h. on the straights and they corner at more than 50 m.p.h.

The boats, at full speed, plane on the tips of the sponsons. The stern is right off the water and the boats become airborne except for

the propeller. The water rushes between the sponsons, hits the propeller and is then thrown into the air in a plume called by the drivers a “rooster's tail.” The water is thrown up 10 to 15ft and falls in a curtain up to 30 yards astern of the fastest boats.

The Rothmans challenge race carries £4OO in stake money, and hydroplanes from Kaikoura to Invercargill have entered. Two North Island boats have been specially built for the race.

Fiat, Cortina, Sunbeam Alpine, Coventry Climax Ford, B.M.C. Cooper, Cosworth Ford, Lotus Ford and Mercury engines, many of them specially modified and

tuned, are among the power units. An unusual unit is the two Triumph motor-cycle engines, coupled tandem fashion, in Excuse Me Too, a Blenheim boat, entered by J. Rutledge. P. R. Knight, commodore of the New Brighton Power Boat Club which is staging Sunday’s regatta, won the race last year in Bel Air 11. Knight will be defending his title on Sunday and must be given a good chance of retaining it as he holds the Australasian 95 cu in hydroplane record in Bel Air II at 95.34 m.p.h. The race will be over 10 miles, seven and a half laps, and will be a gruelling test for the craft, engines and drivers.