Stanley reigns supreme in International Group A Superboat Championship

by Sean Henshelwood on 26 Nov 2009
Slade Stanley came into the 2009 UIM Superboat World Championships as the hot favourite to take out the tightly restricted International Group A category, the Wagga-based builder ranked as one of the best drivers in drivers in the world and fresh from claiming the coveted Australian title during September, he didn’t disappoint.

Quick from opening practice, Stanley was electric in the elimination finals, ultimately taking the win by half a second over Melton’s Ted Sygidus, although it came at a cost, the ‘Hazardous’ team crossing the line with plumes of white smoke pouring from the exhaust.

'Looks like it’s dropped a piston,' engine builder Brian Cassar [MOE Engines] confirmed post-race. 'If you look at that big air intake Slade has on the boat, it has water inside it, so I’m tipping it’s swallowed a mouthful or two during that run. We’ll pull it down now and see what’s happened, but we’ll be right again for next weekend, don’t worry about that.'

'As the day went on the wind kept increasing, we were running against some pretty mean cross wash at times,' Slade added. 'It’s rare that that much water comes over the boat during a run, but I wondered whether that might have been the issue. I could feel it start to drop off towards the final third of the lap, but we enough to finish the lap and keep us in the hunt for Melton.'

Whilst Stanley took the round win, the biggest smile of the weekend belonged to Ted Sygidus, the Melton local admitting that he’s not a huge fan of the Temora layout, and that he can’t wait to get on home turf!

'I could well have won that final,' he beamed afterwards. 'I made one small stuff up and nearly shot down the wrong path. I realised in time but it cost me. With Slade’s hiccup, I could well have been in front in the points heading home, but we’re only one point off and heading to a track I love, a track where speed will be important, and with a new Phonsy Mullan built Chev ready to slot in for the event, I reckon we’re in with a shot. Bring it on!'

Despite the leading Aussies coming to the fore at Temora, the biggest surprise was the lack of pace shown by Kiwi champion Bevin Muir. 'For some reason I’m struggling to get my head around it,' the Thames based driver shrugged. Three ‘wrong ways’ from six passes added weight to his argument, his 12th placed ranking post round dropping him well out of contention for the championship. 'I’d heard about how quick some of the Aussies were, so I was expecting a challenge, but perhaps not this big a challenge. We’ll be back for Melton though and give it a good shot there.'

Whilst it was expected that Muir would wave the All Black flag, it ended up being Reg Smith who would force the Aussies to be on their ‘A’ game, the experienced Kiwi who has contested every UIM World Championship event since its inception ran as high as second in the first two elimination runs, but fell to third in the final.

'That’s pretty good,' he grinned post-event. 'After all these years to be still fighting for an outright win is awesome. I’ve got a brand new Stinger and am seriously impressed with how good it is. Having finished fourth in the world a number of times, this might just be a sign of things to come. I’m having a great time, and I’m really looking forward to Melton which is a track I’ve competed on in the past.'

Contesting the 12/6/3 elimination format for the first time (during the national championships the top ten was reduced to a final three), the top six also consisted of the winner of the national round in March, Brooke Dixon, the second of the Triple X team drivers, Darek Sygidus, and West Australian Chris Farr in the very boat that proved a thorn in the side of the Aussies at the last world championships, Rex Briant’s Stinger.

Farr was quick all day, and put in a blinder during the top 12 elimination event to make the six, relegating teenage sensation Jake Garlick to seventh.

Having converted their ‘trusty’ Tuff-Tak 350 championship winning boat to Group A sepc for the world championships, not too many people had rated the Garlick's as a threat; the boat was aging (so too team boss Mark Garlick), and the engine/jet/hull combination was unproven in the category. No-one told Jake though, the recently crowned Australian 350 champion setting the third fastest time in the opening qualifier... This kid is a star.

It wasn’t just Jake either, Dad too was comfortably inside the top ten early, and both were more than rapt to be there. 'How good’s this,' the affable Queenslander grinned. 'I always wondered whether the boat was better suited to Group A, but to be fair we did make a few modifications to the hull and it’s transformed the handling of the boat... there’s life in the old girl yet!'

Another youngster who has impressed during the second half of the national season, Melbourne’s Shaun Dixon also featured strongly during the top 12 eliminations, but like Garlick, just missed the cut for the top six after dropping time in his final run.

'I just didn’t have my head together,' he admitted. 'All I needed to do was run like I had in the final qualifier and I would have made the top six with Brooke (older sister Brooke Dixon). As it was I dropped half a second, but that was all me, I just wasn’t mentally prepared well enough for it.'

Without the added pressure of assisting in the promotion of the Melton event (Shaun assisted his father Phil in running the Temora event), he should turn in a better run at the western Melbourne venue, although it will be his debut at the track, which rewards horsepower and bravery. It will be an interesting test.

There were a couple of familiar faces outside the top six finalists at Temora; reigning AUS#2 Rohan Smith and former AUS#2 Greg Mecier, both drivers struggling to get speed out of their machines.

'I don’t know what happened,' Greg ‘Crusty’ Mercier shrugged post-event. 'We made some slight adjustments after the final of the Australian championships (where Mercier placed second to Slade Stanley), and we just didn’t seem to have the same sniff. I was flat the whole lap, from start to finish, and as much as we altered things, we just couldn’t extract any more speed.' Adding weight to Crusty’s comments were his lap times, five runs inside of a quarter of a second. 'It’s frustrating, we had one of the quickest boats in the country, and now we’re struggling to make the top ten. We’ll work on it though and you can be sure we’ll be back next weekend to make up for lost ground.'

As Crusty’s final event in the Group A category before graduating to the Unlimited class, you can expect that it will be exciting viewing.

Teams are now heading to Melbourne for the Melton round which gets underway in just three days time, with work going on all over the state as teams race to prepare for the final event of the 2009 season.

QTR - Tyre Professionals International Group A

Top 12 eliminations
1. Slade Stanley (NSW - Hazardous) - 42.714
2. Reg Smith (NZ - GlassPro) - 43.757
3. Ted Sygidus (VIC - Triple X) - 43.797
4. Brooke Dixon (VIC - True Blue Too) - 44.178
5. Darek Sygidus (VIC - Triple X) - 44.254
6. Chris Farr (WA - In the Raw) - 44.638
7. Jake Garlick (QLD - Grumpy) - 44.685
8. Shaun Dixon (VIC - True Blue Too) - 44.708
9. Greg Mercier (VIC - Az U Do) - 44.815
10. Rohan Smith (VIC - BTS Racing) - 44.844
11. Baden Gray (NZ - Teng Tools Racing) - 45.430
12. Bevin Muir (NZ - Teng Tools Racing) - no time

Top six eliminations
1. Slade Stanley (NSW - Hazardous) - 42.873
2. Reg Smith (NZ - GlassPro) - 43.132
3. Ted Sygidus (VIC - Triple X) - 43.342
4. Brooke Dixon (VIC - True Blue Too) - 43.457
5. Darek Sygidus (VIC - Triple X) - 44.141
6. Chris Farr (WA - In the Raw) - 44.896

FINAL
1. Slade Stanley (NSW - Hazardous) - 42.909
2. Ted Sygidus (VIC - Triple X) - 43.414
3. Reg Smith (NZ - GlassPro) - 43.856

QTR - Tyre Professionals International Group A
(points after one round of two)

1. Slade Stanley (NSW) - 40 points
2. Ted Sygidus (VIC) - 39
3. Reg Smith (NZ) - 39
4. Brooke Dixon (VIC) - 37
5. Darek Sygidus (VIC) - 36
6. Chris Farr (WA) - 35
7. Jake Garlick (QLD) - 34
8. Shaun Dixon (VIC) - 33
9. Greg Mercier (VIC) - 32
10. Rohan Smith (VIC) - 31
11. Baden Gray (NZ) - 30
12. Bevin Muir (NZ) - 29
13. Robert Colman (VIC) - 28
14. Andrew Guthrie (NZ) - 27
15. Chris Bollins (QLD) - 26
16. Mark Garlick (QLD) - 25
17. Tremayne Jukes (VIC) - 24
18. Daniel Walton (SA) - 23
19. Rodney Krause (NSW) - 22
20. Damian O’Leary (SA) - 21
21. Mick Manini (VIC) - 20
22. Brooke Lucas (QLD) - 19
23. Chris Kent (WA) - 18
24. Greg Harriman (QLD) - 17
25. Phil Wheelans (NZ) - 16
26. Blair Gibbard (NZ) - 15
27. Shane Loughnan (VIC) - 14
28. Darryl Squires (QLD) - 13
29. Alan Carr (WA) - 12
30. Kieran Krause (NSW) - 11

Round #2 (FINAL) of the 2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships will be held at McPherson Park, Melton, this weekend (November 28-29).

Visit www.v8superboats.com.au for more information.