MacDonald regains jet boat race pride

Press, 20 November 1989, Page 28

MacDonald regains jet boat race pride

Ken MacDonald re-• gained what pride he had; lost by not finishing one' stage in the recent world; jet boat marathon in the North Island, by winning the Stuart Blanchard Memorial race on the Waimakariri River on Saturday.

MacDonald’s Hamilton 182 race boat blew an engine less than a minute into the world marathon, but his 454 cu in, twin turbocharged Gale Banks Chevrolet was running sweetly on Saturday.

The mass class start from Kairaki Beach gave drivers the opportunity to test whose machine was fastest in a straight line. As the A class boats passed under the motorway bridge, MacDonald led the reigning world champion, Bill Roberts, with the twice world champion, Mark Cromie, third. MacDonald had the advantage of knowing the river better than the other two drivers. This knowledge paid off as Roberts pushed his tun-nel-hulled boat hard in an attempt to catch. thtf Christchurch driver.

Roberts, of Whakatane, made a mistake and ran his boat aground. The big boat , with its heavy 48Scu in Chevrolet engine, ended up 300 m from the' river On a bank. He managed to get it back into:, the water and finish the leg without penalty, but was well out of the running. V On the downstream 1eg,... Cromie, •! Whangarei, put the pressure on MacDonald, but in an attempt /,

to take a short-cut in the braided Waimakariri, went up an irrigation channel, which cost him nearly an hour. That left MacDonald to drive home victorious with no major threat His upstream time was 34 minutes, compared with his downstream time of 28min 51s. The second-fastest A class boat was driven by Noel. Gray, of Wanaka, in a Kwik Kraft. hull, powered by a Chrysler engine. Gray’s over-all time was Ihr 26min 375, more than 23 minutes behind MacDonald. Gray’s time would have placed him seventh in the B class. John Taylor, driving another Hamilton boat this time with a 353 cu in Chevrolet engine, won the B class. Taylor, who usually drives A class machinery, adapted well to the smaller boat, trimming the upstream class record by three minutes. The . ever-consistent John Watson, world champion in the B class, was second to Taylor in Ihr •min 355, exactly one minute slower. Large entries meant the event was closely contested. Fifty-two boats started the two-stage - race, the final leg of the six-race Radio Avon jet . boat racing circuit The . addition of several boats from the North Island bolstered the numbers, s Apart from Roberts and Cromie in the A class, most of the other North Islanders fared welt Gary McEwan won the spoils ; C class, taking

victory from Christchurch’s Peter Muff and Philip Kiesanowski. Dave Connelly, from Taranaki, repeated the effort, beating the world D class champion, Ralph Brown, of Queenstown. Brown drove his usual consistent race, but was beaten in the straight-line speed. Restricted class honours went to the overall series winner, Curt Nielson. He achieved the win by finishing-each leg of each race,in a reliable boat Results.— A class: K. MacDoanld Ihr 02min Sis, 1; N. Gray 126.37, 2; A. Millar 1:34.56, 3; B. Roberts 1:4528, 4; M. Cromie 147.01, 5. B class: J. Taylor 12845, 1; J. Watson 120.35,2; L. Begbie 1:1826, 3; J. Burns 1:19.04, 4; D. Yaxley 5. C class: G. McEwan 1:1029, 1; P. Muff 1:15.32, 2; P. Kiesanowski 1:18.81, 3; S. Vallie 12029, 4; G. Watson 1:41.82, 5. D class: D. Connelly 127.17,1; R. Brown 14724, 2 E class: M. Cox 2:47.00; 1; A. Bull 340.00, 2 Restricted class: C. Nielson 1:19.49, 1; W. Walker 12020, 2; P. Woolley 120.41, 3; D. Lysaght 120.00, 4; . L. Munroe 1:30.47, 5. ~ VI class: P. Spicer 1:4048, 1; G. Bolton 151.03, 2; C. Dolan 29342 3; G. Dailey 2-0943, 4. Family class: P. Fogarty 1-40.42, 1; S. Johnsw|e 1:3150, 2 F.