Evinrude E-Tec shows its class in SMOC victory.

by Bob Wonders on 14 Oct 2007 Minimal testing opportunities, but all-new Evinrude E-Tec 250hp HO races to a clear cut win in the highly competitive SMOC class in the Grafton Bridge to Bridge.

From the cardboard carton straight to the winner’s circle as Evinrude E-Tec proves its worth in the Grafton Bridge to Bridge water ski race.

Boat crews preparing for an arduous event such as the Grafton Bridge to Bridge water ski race generally spend many hours testing engines and evaluating propellers.

For Bruce and Jeff Stubbs, driver and observer (and builders!) of the LabSports ‘Ventilator’, eventual victors in the highly competitive SMOC class, there was no such luxury.

Their 250hp HO Evinrude E-Tec was scheduled to make its first Australian appearance and only minimal testing on race even was available to the crew.

'The engine and come virtually straight out of the carton and onto the boat’s transom,' Bruce Stubbs explained.

'We managed the one test on race eve and were delighted to record 133km/hr and we figured that was a sign of better things to come,' he added.

On race day, not everything went their way. We expected to be somewhere around 30th boat away, but ended up 75th and with two boats away every minute we knew we would be at a disadvantage,' Bruce said.

'There were 11 other starters in SMOC, so we knew we were in for a battle.

'Our skiers, Luke Keys and Darren Riley were up to it ands we literally flew out at the start.

'Conditions were perfect over the entire 112km course and we threaded our way through the field to win SMOC fairly convincingly, the second place getter a good 3.5 minutes astern.'

Bruce described the performance of the Evinrude E-Tec as 'absolutely faultless.'

'For an engine three hours old it was an extraordinary achievement,' he declared.

'Using a Garmin GPS we determined our top speed during rhe race was 136.6km/hr and for an engine to do that straight out of the box says a lot for Evinrude engineers.

'Another other factor we found quite astonishing was our fuel consumption – we used only 70-litres for the entire race,' he added.

The LabSports Ventilator, a sleek 5.6-metre rig, not only led the SMOC class home, but finished in the top 20, among larger and quicker entrants.

All engines in the E-Tec range benefit from the identical engineering expertise.

'And with 3-star certification from the demanding California Air Resources Board (CARB), Evinrude cares for the environment while winning races,' a company spokesman was quick to point out.