A successful weekend of racing has now been completed for round one of the Offshore Superboat Championships (OSC) held at the beautiful Bowen. Saturday morning had the racers busy with the finishing touches on their immaculate machines whilst the town hustled down to the jetty and the shoreline to get a piece of all the action.
Pole shootout had all of the 600hp Supercat Outboards trying to get the fastest average lap speed with the smallest boat in the competition, Team 88 Gold Coast City Marina (GCCM) hitting the top average speed of 149kph to cross the finish line and claim pole position for both races on Sunday in their respective class. In at a close second was the Shifty Phantom and the newest edition to the Offshore family R. Marine Crawley tying with a top speed of just under 137kph. Last years AUS1 champions Hogs Breath Racing decided to take it easy on their fellow racers and followed in fourth place reaching a top average speed of 135kph.
Regrettably due to water pressure issues, Barely Legal who made the trip over from New Zealand were unable to finish and due to an unfortunate accident, a favourite in the competition, SUV SIMRAD was out for the weekend after having done damage to their prop shafts in a practice run on the Friday.
In the Supercat 1000hp and Supercat Extreme classes for pole shootout, Maritimo 11 came out on top with an average speed of an outstanding 169kph but regrettably due to a technical issue, Maritimo number 12s impressive top average speed of 159kph did not count.
Due to this, 222 Offshore placed second with a top average speed of 157kph, kiwi team Pro Floors managed to score themselves a third place pole start reaching 154kph, Team 3 got up to speeds of around 152kph to claim fourth place pole position and Yellow Brick Road placed fifth with a 147kph average speed.
Thanks to the owners and workers of S & C Cranes, the boats were all safely craned back into the pits for the teams to prepare their boats for the Annual Bowen Street Festival.
he 600hp Supercat Outboards trying to get the fastest average lap speed with the smallest boat in the competition, Team 88 Gold Coast City Marina (GCCM) hitting the top average speed of 149kph to cross the finish line and claim pole position for both races on Sunday in their respective class. In at a close second was the Shifty Phantom and the newest edition to the Offshore family R. Marine Crawley tying with a top speed of just under 137kph. Last years AUS1 champions Hogs Breath Racing decided to take it easy on their fellow racers and followed in fourth place reaching a top average speed of 135kph.
Regrettably due to water pressure issues, Barely Legal who made the trip over from New Zealand were unable to finish and due to an unfortunate accident, a favourite in the competition, SUV SIMRAD was out for the weekend after having done damage to their prop shafts in a practice run on the Friday.
The street parade was in full swing on the Saturday night with the boats parked along Herbert St with markets, live music, food, prize draws and amusement rides. The whole street (and many of the pubs!) were alive with the population of Bowen and the racing crews all crowding the closed off roads.
With the flag being dropped for the first race, pole leaders for the 600hp Team 88 GCCM took a strong lead for the first few laps but after a gear selector cable came loose, the Shifty Phantom driven by Ian Harris and throttle-man Mick Walker, took the opportunity to push forward and take the lead and continued to hold first place position when crossing the finish line.
With Team 88 GCCM now out of the race, the champion ski racer team, R Marine Crawley had a very successful run and managed to cross the line at a satisfying second just in front of current AUS1 holders Hogs Breath Racing. The kiwi team, John Shand and Mike Knight of Barely Legal still managed to cross the finish line in fourth place with water pressure issues, completing race one for the 600hp class category.
After Maritimo 12s technical issue in the pole shootout the day before, the boys pushed their 525 to the limit and made up for lost ground and had the crowd cheering the whole of race one by placing first in their respective class with Pro Floors coming in only ten seconds behind for a close second. Team 3 had power steering issues the whole race but still managed to get across the line to finish in third place for the 1000hp class category.
In the Supercat Extreme, throttle-man Ross Willaton and driver Travis Thompson had the Maritimo crew grinning from ear to ear with their finish a full minute before the Frier brothers who placed second in Yellow Brick Road and 222 Offshore who came in at a close third place.
Race two drew even more of a crowd with our Offshore commentator David Bishop going red in the face trying to keep up with all the Superboats. Race two was a very close race with the 600hp outboards completing ten laps of the 10km course. It was a bit touch and go for first place position but after the third lap, Phantom Racing slowed right off and Hogs Breath Racing were able to take a strong lead and had the boats chasing their tale until the completion of the race.
After craning their shifty catamaran out and changing gearboxes (a pit stop that would rival even the best F1 team) due to broken seals, Team 88 GCCM managed to successfully make up for race one by crossing the line in second place with R Marine Crawley not too far behind finishing with a third place in front of Barely Legal and Phantom Racing.
Pro Floors International who travelled all the way over from New Zealand to compete in our Offshore Championship did the kiwis proud by taking out the first place position. Only twelve seconds behind the kiwis, on the throttles we had Andrew Searle and driver Andrew Willaton of Maritimo in their immaculate 525 crossing the line for second.
Still with power steering issues, we had Team 3 finish in third place with throttle-man Steve Jellick and no-longer-needing-to-go-to-the-gym-for-a-month, driver Tom Barry-Cotter.
In the Supercat Extreme, Maritimo yet again shone completing the 10km circuit in 32 minutes and 37 seconds. (For those that haven’t done the maths, that’s nearly 10km in under three minutes.) 222 Offshore crossed the line for second place and due to mechanical issues; the favourite brothers in Yellow Brick Road were unable to complete the circuit for a place.
Overall, it was another successful year for the Offshore Superboats at one of their favourite destinations, Bowen. We would like to say a big thank you to all the people who volunteered their time to make us once again feel welcome. Thank you to all the sponsors, Mayor Andrew Willcox, Rae and the Bowen tourism crew, The Whitsunday Council, and of course Mick Boyce. This is all made possible because of you all. A special mention to S & C Cranes for donating your time and the use of your crane. We cannot thank you enough.
