Tight at the top for SuperBoat Champs

Peter Caughey and his ENZED boat aced ‘fastest time’ at every round at Meremere

Just four points separate the top three SuperBoat racers heading into round four of the Suzuki SuerBoat Champs at Hastings on March 16, with defending champion Peter Caughey just three points adrift.

The Hastings track is a unique blend of Kiwiana, styled on the tight technical river track designs of yesteryear, and it’s sure to produce exciting racing from these high-powered nimble craft.

And there’s a class field all with that podium in their sights. “There’s a great list of competitors,” Caughey says. “Steve Bron in our ex world championship boat, he’s a hard charger. Leighton Minnell, Rob Coley, current Australian Champion Phonsy Mullan and a heap of really competitive guys like Hastings local Graeme Hill, currently leading the points table in his Nissan twin-turbo V8 – we will really have to put on our A game.”

Whatever Caughey’s result his Sprintec craft will be at the sharp end of the field, among them Group A racer and current Australian Group A champion Brooke Dixon, who had her first SuperBoat win last weekend in NSW, Australia, in her father’s SuperBoat, “A fantastic effort” Caughey says,  and who will race her Group A Sprintec boat here.

Having checked the boat over and done a complete oil change with Total oil, Caughey drives north from his Canterbury base on Thursday with the ENZED boat on its Trojan trailer heading for his second home – the inter-island ferry – in good time for Sunday’s flag-drop.