Offshore Racing Drama off Townsville

'Hogs Breath, dead in the water after a wave smashed its windscreen and left Paul Fowlds nursing a gashed head. - Offshore Superboat Championships'

Rough conditions off Townsville for the second round of the Offshore Superboat Championships thrilled a crowd estimated at more than 35,000, but ‘thrill’ was not the word that came to mind for the crew board the SuperCat Lite entry, ‘Hog’s Breath’.

With Mick Walker and Paul Fowlds aboard, ‘Hog’s Breath’, which had gained a strong second in round one, came off a wave, stuffed its sponsons and the force of the water smashed in the windscreen of its capsule. It was a lucky escape for both men, with Paul Fowlds sustaining a nasty head gash from the exploding plexiglass ‘screen.

The Class I saw ‘Maritimo’, Tom Barry-Cotter at the wheel with his European throttleman Pal Virik Nilsen, increase its lead in the championships with a clear cut 1min 37sec win over Acme Racing (Steve and Andrew Searle).

They were the only two to complete Class I with ‘Simrad’ (Luke Durman and Peter McGrath) again succumbing to mechanical problems, this time a gear box, and Impact Steel (Steve Jellick and Mat Humphrey) also breaking down after a promising start.

Think Fast was untroubled by the chop and raced over the course to take its second successive win in Unlimited Production Class. - Offshore Superboat Championships -

‘Saracen’, Antony Defina and Simon Thomas aboard, carried on its good form from Redcliffe with another chequered flag in the SuperCat Outboard class.

‘Blade Custom Boats’ (Cameron Davis and Gryff Ethell), the only other entrant, was two laps astern.

‘Ezy Does It’ (Ian Harris/Graham Fraser) was another to post successive wins when it took out the SuperCat Outboard Lite by the slim margin of 22secs from ‘Kwozzy’ (Jim Harris/Adam Nicolls).

Leigh Trevaskis and Steve Nugent brought ‘Team 3’ home in third place.

Peter Jack and Jamie Callan, board the Super Vee Lite entrant ‘Grumpy Mongrel’ went one better than Redcliffe and claimed the class with a five-lap time of 62min 8sec.

Another quick boat scored its second championship win when ‘Think Fast’ (Carl Mazlin/Ken Melvin) won Production Unlimited.

In Production Class, ‘Mr Squiggle’ (Robert and Ryan Millar), a convincing winner at Redcliffe, could only record the dreaded DNF at Townsville.

‘Out Rage Us’ (Scott Verrall/Geoff Everett) took the flag from ‘Smooth Criminal’ (Alex Vasta/Aaron Wright) with ‘The Master’ (Wayne Lamont/Greg Hounsell) third.

‘Acme’ (Chris Searle/Chris Jadkonis) claimed victory in the Haines Suzuki class with ‘Red Herring’ second.

‘Jericho’ (Fred White/Wayne Dean), the class winner in round one, failed to finish.

After two rounds, click here for championship points