Simrad wins in Airlie Beach - Acme burns

by Gary Nash on 18 Jun 2007 Airlie Beach was given its first taste of offshore powerboat racing on Sunday afternoon, with spectacular scenes seeing current series points leader Acme Racing catch fire as defending champions Simrad took out line honours to stay in the race for the 2007 Class One title.

An impressive crowd turned out for racing at Abel Point marina, with the local spectators and tourists keen to get a glimpse of the action out on the water.

Proceedings got underway without incident at the first powerboat event seen in the Whitsunday’s, until just after the first lap was completed when the Acme team noticed a warning light come on in the cockpit.

'The warning light came on and we thought we had better stop and have a look to make sure everything was okay,' explained Acme Racing throttle man Steve Searle.

'We soon realised the boat was on fire, we stayed aboard for ten minutes or so trying to limit the damage and eventually the fire was brought under control, but not before a fair amount of damage had been done.

'It seems like a fuel line problem has caused the blaze, it’s too early to estimate damage but I don’t think this particular boat will be ready for the Gold Coast round in two weeks.

The fire today couldn’t have come at a worse time for Steve and Andrew Searle, the brother combination is currently leading the 2007 series and needed only to finish today to assure a 2007 championship.

'It does leave the door open for the Simrad team, we are only 300 points ahead of them now leading into the Gold Coast round, but I don’t care what I have to do even if we have to freighter a replacement boat in from the U.S we will be competing at the Gold Coast,' said Searle.

Simrad were the lone rangers in the Class One field, with the Maritimo team also forced to retire with mechanical failure, said to be a blower belt that forced them to retire.

'In the end we ran out of boats in Class One so we just played it safe knowing that we have a round coming up on the Gold Coast in two weeks time,' said Simrad driver Luke Durman.

'You never know what could happen, but I doubt very much Acme will let it slide that easily, but it’s great that the championship result is decided in the final round.'