2009 Masport NZ UIM World Grand Prix Hydroplane Championship

by NZL Hydroplane Media on 6 Jan 2009
Less than two weeks to go before the first round of the 2009 UIM World Grand Prix Hydroplane Championship we can report that the Warlord boat has arrived safely in New Zealand from Australia and is presently stored in Auckland awaiting for the team to arrive next week.

Owner Ron Burton said they have the boat and all three engines ready to go and are certainly looking forward to the World Series they also hope to take home with them the AE Baker Australasian Championship which has been in held by New Zealand since 2001.

J. Michael Kelly and his finance arrive in New Zealand next week also from America H20 Full Throttle have made it possible to bring J.Michael to New Zealand , Peter Knight Snr and his team from Christchurch are making available The Boss for Mike to drive. Team leader Dave Hurrell from Christchurch said that they have run up one engine and the second is just about finished the team are excited about the return of The Boss and some of the original team are back to support their quest to win the World Championship.

Graeme Weller returns to Grand Prix Hydroplane with his purchase of the 3 x winning World Champion boat ex Casino De Montreal after three years off from the Grand Prix Hydroplane Circuit Graeme is back and recently tested his renamed G-Force Jamie Auld design Grand Prix Hydroplane at Mangakino early December. ‘Graeme and his team had a few teething issues the first day but buy the end of the weekend they where pretty excited and happy with the way the boat was going.

Scott Coker on the other hand had a few boat handling issues with his Fair Warning and is presently looking at different propellers to help make the boat handle a little better. The engine program is on song and Scott is happy with the way his father Selywn has the engine tuned and confident that they will be reliable and on the podium.

GP007 Warwick Lupton current World Champion and recent winner of the EC Griffith Cup is hoping to have his new Grand Prix Hydroplane in the series but has some recent set backs with work and family so the boat has taken a back seat however he has the 007 boat back from Australia and they are going over it they will be ready and rearing to go for the first round at Tauranga never under estimate this elder statesmen of Grand Prix Hydroplane racing.

The soft roll over of GP008 David Alexander survived a crash recently at Yarrawonga Australia and he is still spitting out water as he tells his story of survival he is great full to the Australian rescue team for plucking David out by his feet in the up turned Annihilator 2. The boat suffered minor damage and the new canard was made by Tom Heffernan before it returned to NZ. So a little patch up of paint and engine builder Grant Rivers will pull down the drenched Big Chief engine and refresh it and he will be ready to go with his 2500 hp engine a force to be reckoned with.

The brightly orange Falcon Engineering sponsored  GP009 of Ken Lupton suffered quiet a bit of damaged to the skeg and the transom after throwing a blade while battling for first place with Warlord in the Yarrawonga Gold Cup. The vibration was so severe that it pulled the gear box off and loosened the bolts in the cowling the repairs where also made before the boat returned to NZ. Ken was pretty happy with his new engine and gear box package so a thorough check over of the boat over the next week he is also pretty much ready to go.

The first round of the 2009 UIM World Grand Prix Hydroplane Championship kicks off Downtown Tauranga January 17-18th with two heats each day and the 84th running of the Masport Cup the final round will be two weeks later at Lake Karapiro Cambridge also featuring the round two of the New Zealand Powerboat Nationals, AE Baker Australian Hydroplane Championship and the Matt Morrison Memorial Unlimited V8 flatties.

www.hydroplane.co.nz