Outlaw tamed

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33075, 16 November 1972, Page 21

Outlaw tamed

Outlaw, as its name implies, has been just that for John Butterfield and Peter Phillips this season. After their success in the Caltex jet boat marathon this year (they were the outright winners) the two decided to go off-shore racing. John Butterfield purchased Elation from Jack Ryan renaming it Outlaw, an 18ft Ryancraft, full fibreglass, constructed with 18deg V in the bottom. They fitted a 454 Chev with Edelbrock inlet manifold, “hot” cam, roller rockers and Edelbrock high rise megaphone exhaust system, and entered the first race of the season at Queenstown, where they got a creditable second to Pathfinder (lan Reeves, of Rotorua) beating home Goldfinger and Bullitt. Invercargill was next and after holding a comfortable

lead from Goldfinger, the steering collapsed on the last lap and retirement was necessary. Dunedin was another disappointment. It was the first outing of their archrival LM2 (Gavin Corbett and Gavin McKay). Word has it that there is more than the race at stake—rumours about a crate of champagne per race. After an interesting couple of laps with LM2 and Goldfinger, Outlaw’s sick gear box had to be nursed and she never quite made it—<■ the gears stripped half a mile from the finish. Lyttelton followed (by this time she had a new gear box and reconditioned motor) and discretion being the better part of valour, she was pedalled home in sixth place. Akaroa was bad news. In the trials a series of expensive noises meant the

race was observed from the shore. Picton created the same results. Head gasket blew, and again retirement. Kanieri next. By this time Butterfield and Phillips had begun to know all about Chev 454 motors and felt they had finally sorted the rig and motor out — and they proved it by winning the two-hour marathon in a record speed of 61.9 m.p.h. heading off the fastest in the South Island, Goldfinger, LM2, Skope, and Milling Machine from Hamilton. In the atrocious conditions at Timaru they withdrew Outlaw with their eyes set hopefully on a reasonably calm Wellington Harbour on Saturday where they should do credit to the South Island contingent attending this premier event in New Zealand.