24 Jan 2014
The 2014 Club Marine Southern 80 will be held in two weeks’ time – 7th, 8th & 9th February. Teams are travelling from as far as Queensland, New Zealand, USA and Belgium to compete in the ‘World’s Biggest Water Ski Race,’ the annual event which draws around 50,000 people into the towns of Echuca/Moama.
Saturday has the social classes, then Sunday morning’s racing starts with 200HP Outboard expert, where it will be a close call between Messy, Saintin and No Fear. Junior Boys with Pigs Arsenal and Warspeed battling it out for the win, whilst Rush and Triple 666 with be pushing it for the Junior Girls class. 70MPH and 60MPH – the predictions could be any of these teams, as long as they don’t break out! Teacher’s Pet and Pop & Me look to be the quickest in Sub Junior Boys, in Sub Junior Girls with only two entries, as long as they both finish they will be up on the podium!
The popular ‘Superclass’ has 12 entries, whoever wins the Blitz on Saturday will take off first on Sunday afternoon. Last years’ winner Hellrazor has Mark Cranny driving, Damian Matthews observing, Pete Proctor and Jason ‘Zig’s’ Walmsley skiing – will they win it again this year and beat their 2010 record of 30.32? The teams of Merc Force, Superman, Blazen, 99 Psycho Clowns, Elm Street, Sapphire, BURNIN, The Mistress, Gassa, The Syndicate and Top Gun, make up the rest of the Superclass field. A class full of some of the best skiers in Australia racing their way down to the finish line to break Cranny’s record. Noel with Blazen wants to win it – lets see if he can beat Cranny to the line!
The next class to take off is Unlimited Inboard, with Stinga as the prediction. Look out for Wild Thing, they won’t be far behind. Either Cyclone Racing 2 or Watersports Marine are the predictions for Unlimited Outboard. Followed by the rest of the engine classes. These include 8 Litre Inboard – prediction is Superslak – a local Echuca boat, 6 Litre Inboard – prediction is any of the top three, Ultra Trouble Maker, Synthetic or Toey As. Next up is MOC, with Evinrude Ace Racing taking off first. Last year they broke the record – lets see if they can do it again. SMOC will be a close call between Little Man and Sonic Boats, with Seriously Gro Up, Pest and The Sting 2 fighting it out for the Stock 6 Litre trophy. F2 is next up, this one is tough – could be any of the first 6-7 boats in this class, with More Mojo looking like it should bring home the 5.2 & 6 Cylinder Inboard trophy. Open Women’s has some very talented skiers in the class – Chels and Kylee will be very hard to beat behind Reactor, but Recovery’s Reflection with Maddi and Tayla won’t be far behind. The age classes are next – 16 – 19 Boys will be Lloyd and Mitch behind Thundernuts, Ash and Lucy behind Extreme Meltdown should take out 16 – 19 Girls.
Some stats for the weekend are as follows:
– Four competitors are competing in 5 races over the weekend, keeping them extremely busy! Adam Jones, Alex Handley, Glenn Tooth and Ian Payne are the ones to look out for.
– Force is the most popular boat hull
– Most popular inboard motors are Chev
– Most popular outboard motors are Mercury
– 3 current World Champions are competing in the Southern 80 this year – Jack Harrison, Rachel Stapleton and Ben Gulley
– International competitors are travelling from New Zealand, Belgium and USA
– The youngest skier is Jaali Walsh, born in 2007
– Oldest competitors are Adrian Heffernan and Nick Feros, both born in 1944
For more information on the event, please visit www.southern80.com.au
