Acme wins Gold Coast 100 and Offshore Championship

by Garry Nash on 1 Jul 2007 Acme racing brothers Steve and Andrew Searle have taken out this afternoon's Gold Coast 100 to seal the 2007 Australian Offshore Powerboat Class One Championship in front of their home crowd on the Gold Coast.

After an incident riddled weekend last week at Airlie Beach where the Acme boat caught fire and jeopardised their title chances, the Acme team were able to pull together and come through with the goods this afternoon, taking a conservative approach that ended up paying dividends and handing them the championship.

Acme needed only to finish this afternoon's race to ensure the title was theirs, and their conservative approach saw them claim the race victory after a few heart stopping moments had them wondering just what they needed to do to catch a break.

'On the fifth lap the port side engine had a temperature warning go off so we stopped the boat and Andrew got out to make sure it was alright,' said Steve Searle.

'It was heart in the mouth stuff, I was letting Andrew know the temperature every ten seconds and then we saw that the Maritimo boat had stopped so we were able to make up ground and have a win.'

Maritimo father son duo Bill and Tom Barry-Cotter were very unlucky, having lead from the outset they encountered problems on lap ten, eventually retiring due to a blow blower belt handing the win to Acme after they had lapped the Acme team due to the cautious approach taken by the Searle's to ensure they reached a completion point to secure enough points for the series win.

With their boat being badly damaged in last weekend fire, Acme brokered a deal with Smorgon Steel that gave them a boat to race this weekend and Searle was thankful to his offshore counterpart for the arrangement. Searle
drove Low's boat with ACME Racing's engines and drives.

'I would like to personally thank Tony Low and the Smorgon team they have been fantastic, as have my Acme crew who worked around the clock to get us up and running this weekend,' said Searle.

2006 champions SIMRAD were forced to retire after a fuel pump shut down after completing eight laps, unfortunate for Luke Durman and Ross Willaton who tried their hearts out to defend their title in 2007.

Saracen and Blade battled it out for the Class Three- six litre line honours, and while Blade had the ascendancy in the first half of the race, Saracen shone through to pass and take the race win, with Blade doing enough to claim their respective class title for 2007.

'We won the final three races this year so it's a shame we couldn't compete the entire season as the boat just wasn't ready in time, it's looking good for next year though,' said Saracen's Antony Defina.

Class Three-four litre proved to be the category for some awesome racing this year and this afternoon was no different, with four of the five teams going toe to toe for much of the first half of race proceedings.

Hogs Breath had already sealed their fifth straight title in their respective class before today's race got underway, however second place was well open between Kwozzy, Ezy Does It and Shaken Not Stirred.

Hogs Breath and Kwozzy raced ahead to do battle up front and the win was still up for grabs rounding the final turn when Kwozzy spectacularly flipped, resulting in a red flag and a Hogs Breath win.

With Kwozzy keen to snatch victory and pushing hard as ever for a Hogs Breath mistake, they took the final corner with a rush of blood to the head in an area of the track where boats frequently left the water in choppy conditions.

Both Kwozzy drivers, Adam Nicolls and Jim Harris escaped without injury though both were disappointed they couldn't snatch a victory in the final race leaving them with a water damaged boat in the process.

'Its very disappointing to end up the way it has after such a great battle with Hogs Breath, it would have been awesome to win in front of our home crowd,' said Adam Nicolls.

Hogs Breath pair Paul Gibbs and Paul Fowlds have had a strangle hold on their category for five years now and aren't about to give up their dominance, though they are pleased with the growing numbers.

'It feels fantastic to win our fifth straight title and in a year where the competivieness has grown immensely and the numbers are on the rise as well which makes for much better racing, as we saw today,' said Paul Gibbs

Acme's Chris Searle and Chris Jadkonis won the inaugural Haines/ Suzuki one make title, while Jericho took out today's win and the final four of the year.

Chris Webb and Mick Campbell won today's Production Class aboard Bullet.

GOLD COAST 100 CLASS WINNERS

Class One: ACME Racing - Steve and Andrew Searle

Class Three- six litre: Saracen - Antony DeFina & Simon Thomas

Class Three- four litre: Hogs Breath - Paul Gibbs & Paul Fowlds

Production Class: Bullet Racing - Chris Webb & Mick Campbell

Haines/Suzuki One make series: Jericho - Rodney Walker & Brett Carroll

2007 CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL POINTS TALLY

Class One:
ACME Racing - 2250 points
Simrad - 1775
Maritimo - 1445
Smorgon Steel - 525

Class Three- six litre:
Blade - 2550 points
Saracen - 1800
Infinity - 675

Class Three- four litre:
Hogs Breath Racing - 2575 points
Shaken Not Stirred - 1913
Ezy Does It - 1825
Kwozzy - 1544
Pheonix - 427

Haines/ Suzuki One Make Class:
Acme - 2300 points
Slam - 2100
Jericho - 1900