Field is hot on the Trask Brothers heels

by F1 Superboat media on 5 Jul 2007 Although the Trask’s dominated round 4 of the XLR8 Home Loans Australian Formula 1 Series, there are a number of understudies and supporting drivers who are hot on their heels.

With the new control ECU implementation at Taree, racing that was already close, left teams with no elbow room at all. In Official Practice, places 2-4 were split by only 33 hundredths of a second. Leaving less than the proverbial between Rhys Coles, Bob Trask and Shane Vella.

Qualifying on Sunday morning saw Mick Beasley qualify 1.62 seconds behind the Trask pair, with Shane Vella and Anthony McEnnally split by 16 hundredths of a second for start positions 4 and 5. Rhys Coles suffered with a gearbox problem, relegating him to last pole.

Race 1 saw problems for Craig Truslove forcing him to the pits early with fuel pump problems. Shane Vella put up a challenge to the Trask’s and picked up a position within the first lap, finishing the race in 3rd place with a fastest lap only 2 tenths of a second Slower than the fastest lap by Bob Trask.

Race 2 was marred with a red flag for Craig Truslove and Mick Beasley’s stranded boats. This stoppage gave Rhys Coles the opportunity he needed to quickly repair his vessel. Unfortunately the same could not be said about Shane Vella whose machine stumbled over the new ECU, stopping him from continuing the race. Todd Boaer suffered with flat batteries and was unable to continue. Craig Truslove’s XLR8 Home Loans machine was able to restart, which was great for the team as Truslove then raced hard to finish 3rd.

Race 3 gave us some of the best racing seen in years, with the fastest lap times of 5 of the Superboats covered by only 9 tenths of a second. Todd Boaer, in his rookie season, kept his nose clean and brought the Jet Worx machine home in 8th place. Mick Beasley, having qualified so well, had to be content with position 7. Anthony McEnnally continued with his consistent work, gaining enough points to be tied for 2nd place in the Series. Shane Vella’s team, with the assistance of some officials, worked hard between races and had him back in the water for race 3. All be it in last position, Vella had Coles in his sights and wasn’t prepared to go down with out a fight. He proceeded to pass and lap others till he reached position 5, where he could taste the spray of Byron Bay Premium Ale and imagined how well it would go with a Pannarottis Pizza. By the finish line, Vella was only 1.7 seconds behind Coles. This kept Vella in equal 2nd for the Series. Truslove was on a high from finishing 3rd in race 2 and was determined to finish on ??the podium once more, which he did.

Over all the round results were

David Trask (Trask Development Corporation)
Bob Trask (Trask Development Corporation)
Rhys Coles (Byron Bay Premium Ale)
Anthony McEnnally (Water Sports Marine)
Craig Truslove (XLR8 Home Loans)
Shane Vella (Panarottis Pizza Pasta)
Mick Beasley (Rovet Electrical and Lighting at Erina)
Todd Boaer (Jet Worx Marine/Mortgage Wisdom)

Telecast of the Toukley and Taree rounds will be shown on Speed Machine this Saturday 30th June at 11am on Channel 9, Fox Sports (Inside Speed) 4/7/07 7.00pm Full Noise 5/7/07 7.00pm check your local guide for details.

The next round will be at Port Macquarie, on the weekend of July 21-22.

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