Thundercats on a thundering rampage in New Zealand

by Bob Wonders on 5 Feb 2009
Twenty-eight Thundercat racing teams arrived at Waipu Cove, 120 kilometres north of Auckland, for the fourth round of the National Surfcross series last weekend.

The teams had previously ‘gone to war’ in the first and second rounds at Whangamata and Maunganui on January 3 and 4 and at Lyall Bay, Wellington for the third round on January 17.

Going into the fourth stanza, series leader ‘Ruff Rider’ (Cole Arnott and Dave Sievers) was being under plenty of pressure from a second tier group including ‘Jungle Coffee’ (Glen Burnand and Greg Norman, who does NOT play golf), ‘Waikato Sandblasting’ (Greg Powell and Sarah Barrell) and ‘Goodyear’ (Tony Vercauteren and Arran Fifield.)

Points were so close that ‘Ruff Rider’ was left with a minimal margin for error if it was to retain its lead.

After a week of calm conditions across New Zealand, he crews had to settle for a small, 0.5 –metre surf break, but it was still enough to offer close racing and good entertainment for an eagerly-awaiting crowd on the beach.

Race director Gary Morrison had the action away on time at exactly 1100hrs, with four rounds of three heats scheduled before a grand final at 1430hrs.

The race course was a standard Thundercat surfcross arrangement with five laps required of the 900 square metre area.

It was a challenging circuit, the small though boisterous surf kept crews working, particularly through buoy turns with waves breaking over the buoys.

The leads changed regularly in each race, with any lapse in concentration or unlucky wave break causing a loss of position.

Despite the relatively small surf, two boats, ‘Charged’ and ‘Hell Pizza’ (twice!) managed to flip upside down.

That certainly proved the durability of the 50hp Yamaha and Tohatsu outboard engines employed by the Thundercats, as both boats continued racing, when right way up, of course.

The slick starts and early dominance of ‘Ruff Rider’ was broken in one heat by ‘Waikato Sandblasting’, which was then downed in another heat by ‘Jungle Coffee.’

Ten crews made it into the final, ‘Ruff Rider’, which took pole position, ‘Jungle Coffee’, ‘Waikato Sandblasting’, ‘Goodyear’, ‘Crashpad.co.nz’, ‘Novotec’,’ CMC Markets’, ‘Line 7’, ‘Quicken’ and ‘Plumbquick’.

Over six punishing laps, ‘Ruff Rider’ and its crew completed a near perfect day and came away with a solid series lead and 1617 points.

‘Jungle Coffee’ held on to second place (1423 points) ahead of ‘Waikato Sandblasting’ (1335 points).

As a result of recent rule adoptions by the Thundercat Racing Association of NZ, engine stripping, measuring and sealing protocols on all engines proved them to be all of equal horsepower.

It meant that heat winners were those who performed the faultless Le Mans starts, chose propellers to suit the conditions, drove appropriately to those conditions and placed their boats on the beach to enable their co-pilots to score well in the run to the beach finish line.

Round five is set for February 14 at Waihi Beach.

For full results and information visit the website, www.thundercatracing.com