‘Mustang’ miracle! Champions make it three from three

by Bob Wonders on 23 Nov 2010 In what could only be termed a massive reversal of form and fortune, Tom Barry-Cotter (driver) and Pal Virik Nilsen (throttles) have claimed their third successive Australian Offshore Superboat Championship with a stunning victory in Melbourne.

In the cockpit of the supercharged catamaran ‘Mustang’ the pair proved their mettle with a resounding win coming straight after their pole shootout win the previous day.

The victory gave Barry-Cotter and his Norwegian throttleman the Class 1 and Aus 1 titles, with team mates Ross Willaton (driver) and Peter McGrath (throttles) in ‘Maritimo’ coming home second in Aus 1 and third in Class 1.

‘Acme Racing’ was in with a viable chance to take the title, and needed only to finish ahead of ‘Mustang’ to be crowned Australian Class 1 champions, but luck does not always offer support.

Andrew Searle (throttles), brother of team owner Steve Searle with Steve’s son Christopher at the wheel, needed only to finish ahead of the two Maritimo team boats to claim the national title.

Sadly, for the Searle clan, it was not to be and after performing strongly in the opening laps, right on the transom of ‘Mustang’, ‘Acme Racing’ and Class 1 rival ‘Trojan Steel’ both slowed to a heart breaking stop on lap four.

Earlier, the race had been re-started after ‘Qatar 96’, with multiple world champion Steve Curtis and Qatar’s Ali Al-Neama on board, rolled at a marker buoy and finished upside down.

Both men used the escape hatch to good advantage and were uninjured.

The boat was not quite so fortunate with some rather severe structural damage to one side.

On the –re-start it was ‘Maritimo’ which leapt from the line, closely followed by ‘Mustang’ and before their sad demise, ‘Acme Racing’ and ‘Trojan Steel.’

The withdrawals left ‘Maritimo’ and ‘Mustang’ in an outright battle for victory before ‘Mustang’ sliced through on approach to the finish line and claimed honours by the barest four second margin.

There were only two entries in Supercat Lite (1050hp and a close result was forecast with the Frier brothers, Brendan and Christopher, aboard ‘The Good Guys’ determined to ‘put one over’ arch-rivals Mike Beil and Steve Jellick (‘Global Racing’).

Unfortunately, the expected ‘dice’ did not happen when ‘Global Racing’ was forced out with engine trouble.

However, the ‘Global Racing’ team had accumulated enough points to win The Challenger Trophy and claim championship honours.

‘Team 3’, (Steve Nugent and Travis Thompson) did not start at Sandringham due to the boat being sold earlier in the season, and was officially declared third in the final point score.

‘SUV Dodge Ram’, Cameron Davis (driver) and Brett Luhrmann (throttles) aboard, was beaten into second place by ‘Saracen’, Antony de Fina (driver) and Nigel Craven (throttles) at the controls, but like ‘Global Racing’ Davis and Luhrmann had enough points to hand to win the J.R.Gilbert Trophy and the Supercat Outboard championship.

‘Kwozzy’ (Jim Harris and Adam Nicolls) was officially third.

In Supercat Outboard Lite, ‘FGI’, Mick Walker at the wheel, Gary Smith on throttles, capped a remarkable season of durability and reliability with their sixth win of the season, backed up by three seconds in the nine starts, to win The Shark Cat Trophy and the Class championship.

It was an astonishing effort, with a record of achievement most crews would envy – first, second, first, first, second, second, first, first, and first!

Ian Harris (driver) and Graham Fraser (throttles) in ‘Berwicks’ chased ‘FGI’ all season long and had it not been for a DNF in the opening race, the end result could have been much closer.

‘Berwicks’ claimed two wins, five seconds, one third and that DNF over what must be seen as a fairly successful season.

Conditions off the Sandringham Yacht Club were described as 'brilliant' for racing.

'There was a 10 to 15 knot southerly and it chopped up the course nicely,' Race Director Russell Embleton said.

'All in all it was a great weekend.

'We were very happy with the attendance and the interest shown,' he added.

It came as no surprise that Tom Barry-Cotter and Pal Virik Nilsen were overjoyed with their eventual win and their third successive championship achievement.

After what could only be termed a disastrous start to their title defence (two DNS and two DNF), the general feeling was that it was all over for ‘Mustang’.

As one wag said, 'You wouldn’t back ‘Mustang; with someone else’s money.'

Obviously no one told Tom and Pal; engine problems behind them, the pair racked up four successive AUS 1 wins to total 3125 points, 325 points ahead of second-placed ‘Maritimo’ with ‘Acme Racing’ a mere 104 points adrift in third place.

‘Mustang’ also claimed Class 1 with some solace for ‘Acme Racing’ which edged out ‘Maritimo’ by just 50 points to finish second in the class.

A successful season has closed with more than its share of highlights; plenty of spectacular crashes, but no serious injuries and some colour added with the appearance of eight-time world champion throttleman Steve Curtis, MBE, Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and Ali Al-Neama.

Roll on, season 2011.