Caughey too good in Unlimited Superboat World Final

by Sean Henshelwood on 4 Dec 2009
2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships, McPherson Park, Melton, Victoria, Australia on 1 December, 2009.

The 2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships have officially come to an end, and whilst the results will show that the favourites took out victory in their respective classes, it was by no means a sure thing. In fact Slade Stanley’s victory in the International Group A class came all the way down to the penultimate run of the championship after nemesis and Melton local Ted Sygidus looked the goods to force a ‘play-off’ in the final; a Sygidus made the top three of the second and final round, but it wouldn’t be ‘big’ Ted.

In the elite Unlimited Superboat class pre-event favourite and reigning world title holder Peter Caughey was always expected to set the pace, but unlike his 2008 title, his advantage was kept to just tenths of a second forcing him to dig deep to face the local onslaught. In the end though the reigning world champion prevailed after his two finals challengers failed to complete their lap. Caughey though wasn’t deterred and despite needing to just finish the final to take the points, the kiwi star set the fastest lap of the weekend on his way to his second consecutive world title.

SBS Speedweek Unlimited Superboat
Despite his favouritism and the relative ‘ease’ with which he won the opening round at Temora, it was by no means a certainty that reigning world Unlimited champion Peter Caughey would have everything his own way at Melton.

For a start the weather would again prove a factor, and whilst the cooler conditions and the altitude of the circuit were better suited to his naturally aspirated 540 cubic-inch powerplant, it was also better suited to Dean Finch’s twin-turbo unit and the supercharged engines of Daryl Hutton and Phonsy Mullan.

For Nathan Pretty too he felt he would be more competitive, although like Caughey, he expected Hutton, Finch and Mullan to be in the mix.

By the close of the two practice and qualifying rounds on Saturday afternoon, Pretty and the remaining pack had plenty to look forward too after Caughey failed to complete two of his four navigations in the correct rotation.

'Look, it was my fault,' the world champ admitted. 'I was looking too far ahead and planning my approach to different corners before I had the direction down-pat. I won’t make the same mistake tomorrow!'

To be fair to Caughey though, he wasn’t alone. In fact at the close of the opening practice session, the course direction was shortened as some Superboats were turning in laps on the shady side of 60 seconds! For safety’s sake (there was a possibility of some Superboats running their tanks dry) teams and officials agreed that the course be shortened for the second practice and subsequent qualifying runs. It came as welcome news.

Whilst Saturday had provided mostly dry running, Sunday brought cool southerly conditions and sporadic rain, making a muddy weekend even less comfortable. Despite this the action on track continued to intensify.

Caughey carried on with his Saturday form and got faster with each run. So too did Pretty who suffered an early setback after an electrical failure almost kept him from the morning’s opening qualifier.

Whilst Pretty and Caughey set the lead pace, as the day wore on, Finch, Mullan and Hutton crept closer to the leaders, Hutton the big surprise after a frightening off on Saturday.

'During the second practice session I ran a bit wide at the mid-point of the track and skated across the tyres,' the recently crowned Australian champ confirmed. 'I thought I could ride it back, but there wasn’t enough time once I got back in the water to turn so we rode the next island, and into the channel again before mounting the bank.'

Like the majority of those that witnessed the action, the safety crew never expected the boat to travel so far, but a mixture of the angle on which the boat had turned (it was over on the driver’s side when it left the island) and the wet and slippery conditions of the bank allowed the boat to travel as far as the earth embankment where it found a path up into the catch fence, sadly trapping a member of the surprised safety crew by the leg.

Unfortunately for Craig Oakley, the wet conditions also caught him, preventing him from moving quickly and he was unable to avoid the ‘Hooters’ boat on its path up the embankment, although fortunately he received only bruising and unsurprisingly, shock, the boat coming to a rest on his calf, trapping him in the mud for almost half an hour whilst safety crew and ambulance officers extracted him safely from the mud.

The incident shocked the normally unflappable kiwi, and the team retired the boat for the rest of the day as the team checked systems. 'The boat’s okay,' boat owner and Melton promoter Peter Freckleton confirmed, 'But fortunately, so too are Craig, Daryl and Yvonne, the roll cage and the catch fence both doing their job.'

By Sunday afternoon though the ‘honourary’ Aussie was back in contention, swapping times with Finch and Pretty in pursuit of Caughey. 'If I hadn’t missed those two runs on Saturday we would probably have been a bit further forward,' ‘Nutsy’ [Hutton] lamented.

At the front Caughey continued to set the pace, improving his opening round time of 43.998 to a 42.558 by the close of qualifying. Pretty too continued to improve, but he was unable to break into the 42s, setting a best of 43.290, his time though beaten by Finch who set a 43.183 during his final qualifier. Hutton held down fourth (44.492) ahead of the ever improving Leighton Minnell (44.724) with Mick Carroll sixth (44.908) despite a rough run (navigationally) through the qualifying heats.

Duncan Wilson (45.584), Phonsy Mullan (46.159), Pat Dillon (46.171) and Jamie Welch (46.268) rounded out the top ten, whilst Tony Giustozzi (47.261) and Louise Dixon (47.740) closed out the top 12 elimination qualifiers.

Before the finals got underway, 12 became 11 as Giustozzi surprised everyone by stepping out of the boat on the dummy grid and returning home to Adelaide, announcing his retirement in the process. 'We were all a bit shocked,' team-mate Mick Carroll admitted.

11 became ten after Duncan Wilson had a terrifying run across the island separating the pit pool from the track, the big 640ci injected Sprintec fortunately landing in the pool right side up allowing Wilson to turn the boat back into the out-shoot, avoiding the stunned crowd in the pits, his off ending his championship aspirations.

Louise Dixon was the next out of the elimination finals, although her pace improved again and her entry into the top 12 an indication of just how much she continues to improve with every event, a tenth placed ranking in a world championship event a fantastic result for the team. Sadly it could have been much better, Louise admitting the boat felt ‘off song’ through the second half of her run.

Whilst there was no clear indications of trouble, Nathan Pretty’s run at the end of the top six final was a sure sign that things weren’t right.

'It looks like there’s been an electrical failure in the spark box which is connected to the magneto,' crew-chief Col Parish confirmed afterwards. 'It wasn’t immediately obvious after Louise’s run, but she admitted she could feel something. We’d put in a spare unit after Nathan stopped at the first turn in the second practice session yesterday, but it wasn’t a new unit and prone to issues when it got wet, something we didn’t find till later. It’s a pity we missed the final. We wouldn’t have caught Caughey, but we would have been good for second.'

In the end the top six elimination final included Pretty who posted his best time of the weekend (43.084) for third fastest prior to Louise Dixon’s top 12 run, but the top six was as far as he made it. Caughey again posted the fastest time (42.475), ahead of Dean Finch (42.882) in the explosive ‘Loose Cannon’ with Hutton fourth. Leighton Minnell made the six with the fifth fastest time (44.952) whilst hometown hero Phonsy Mullan was sixth (45.355) narrowly holding out Dillon and Carroll.

Pretty was out fourth in the top six, and fourth was where he would finish, the electrical issue dropping his best to a 44.004, a whole second slower than his fastest time of the weekend. Daryl Hutton improved on his best to take the third fastest time, with Dean Finch getting closest to Caughey with a 42.738. Caughey though ‘stepped it up’ again to top qualify (42.268) leaving Mullan, Minnell and Pretty to watch the final from the bank.

'That was all we had in the end,' a disappointed Pretty admitted. 'It’s a pity we couldn’t have taken second for Phil, Louise and all the team because they put in a mammoth effort right throughout the world series. I’ll take third though, that’s not a bad result.'

For Mullan too, he was reflective about what could have been. 'Finally we get the engine sorted and then we strike niggling little issues,' he shrugged. 'We were down a lot on power in the end, the intercooler had a drama and we were running seriously hot, so we had to conserve. The final was our best run of the weekend, but it wasn’t enough; back to the drawing board...'

Hutton was first out in the final, and it was clear he was on a hot lap, but not too far from where he ran into trouble during Saturday’s practice session, he came out of the water again, this time with little damage. 'I knew if we were going to catch Finchy or Caughey it would need everything we had,' the Aussie champ admitted. 'I gave it what I had, but it wasn’t quite enough. We’ll take second though, it’s not a bad end to the year.'

That left Finchy, and it was clear off the line that the 2007 national Unlimited champion was on a mission. Sadly that mission lasted just over 12 seconds before the diminutive Mildura native made a navigational error. Clearly annoyed at himself, he attacked the next couple of corners at speed and cut one so fine that he rolled over the island, upside down into the water and back right side up.

'It was my fault,' he grinned afterwards. 'I don’t know how I made that navigational error, but after I stuffed it I thought I’d put on a show for the crowd. The engine’s okay which is all that matters, we’ll fix the hull pretty easily. It was a disappointing end. We checked the data and it showed by the first turn I was already up a full second on my best lap of the weekend, and by the 12 second mark I was up a second and a half. With the speed that thing has, I would have made more on the run to the line. It wasn’t to be.'

It was almost deja-vu; an Unlimited Superboat final at Melton, with two of the three contenders crashing out before the last run of the day; an almost complete mirror of the opening round of the Continental Tyres Australian Superboat Championships in March where interestingly, both Hutton (engine failure 50 metres from the start) and Finch (fuel fitting failure) failed to finish the final.

That time it was Giustozzi who duly made it a trifecta by crashing on the final corner. This time though it was Caughey, and like Giustozzi, all he had to do was finish to claim top honours; he could do it at walking pace if he liked. In retrospect that was never going to happen, and the kiwi star duly obliged with the fastest run of the weekend - 42.024.

'I had to,' Caughey beamed afterwards. 'I’d opened my big mouth and told someone that I could do a 41; I almost made it.

'Look, this has been a terrific result for our team and our sponsors. At one stage I wasn’t sure we’d make it, but with the help of TOTAL, Motovated and Eaton we were able to put a package together and come over to battle the best. It was no easy task, the competition is improving all the time, we were just fortunate to have enough in reserve to keep in front. It’s been a great event.'

2009 UIM World Jetsprint Championships
Championship points (after two rounds of two)

SBS Speedweek Unlimited Superboats
1. Peter Caughey (NZ) - 80 points
2. Daryl Hutton (NZ) - 77
3. Nathan Pretty (VIC) - 76
4. Dean Finch (NSW) - 73
5. Mick Carroll (SA) - 70
6. Leighton Minnell (NZ) - 67
7. Duncan Wilson (NZ) - 66
8. Jamie Welch (WA) - 65
9. Tony Giustozzi (SA) - 64
10. Pat Dillon (NZ) - 61
11. Andrew Page (NSW) - 60
12. Phonsy Mullan (VIC) - 57
13. Louise Dixon (VIC) - 56
14. Peter Freckleton(VIC) - 55
15. Adam Raverty (VIC) - 53
16. Jody Ely (VIC) - 52
17. Richard Burt (NZ) - 51
18. Cheryl Welch (WA) - 50
19. Paul Burgess (ACT) - 46