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HellRazor wins the Hi-Tec Oils Hawkesbury 120 – Full Report

HELLRAZOR WINS THE 2012 HI-TEC OILS HAWKESBURY 120 WATER SKI RACE.

The first race of the 2012-2013 Super Series’ was an action packed success, with close racing in all classes all weekend and lots of record times absolutely obliterated.

The Sydney Sun gods were smiling, rewarding competitors with smoother water and low winds.

The race program introduced a few different skiers & boat combinations for this season, as well as some brand spanking new boats, never seen raced before.

As such the gossip on the bank was running in overdrive. Who would it be that takes it out ?

The Sackville Shootout, a 33km race for Sunday’s pole positions, from Sackville to Windsor, was a race that came down to a 1 second gap over the finish line between last year’s winner Superman and Queensland’s Blazen towing current F2 World Champion Grant Turner and Nth Qld’s Mark Weaver.

Stepping up into Super Class, after a few years of domination in the Unlimited Inboard class, was Darren Stewart and his super quick boat Agitator. Towing Kris Knights and Justin Cadden, the guys really kept the front 2 boats honest, finishing just 16 seconds back, beating their Unlimited record time by 4 seconds. ..Cant wait to see the new Force in action !

Following in 4th place was Hellrazor, towing Super Class newcomer Jake Tegart and former World Champion Jason ‘Zig’ Walmsley. Sapphire, the Mistress, Hellbent, the B, Elm Street and Top Gun rounded out the top 10 Super Class entrants, all within 1 minute of the winning time.

Saturday morning the racing started from 9am and the Social Class crews raced from Windsor to Sackville and return, followed by the Sackville to Windsor only, Veterans, Juniors and Disabled.

There were a lot of standout performances, with the MOC record being lowered by around a minute by the team from Cyclone Warning. Mitch Mulcahy and Jake Vanzetta also nabbed the race record in the Formula 2 social, behind 99 Psycho Clowns Team 4. Kylee Jones and Stephanie Barens skied their hearts out behind Andy Smith’s brand new Force hull, Wild Thing, to knock around a minute of Kylee (and Ann Procter’s) 2008 record in Womens. The Noosa Heads based team No Fear won and set a new record in the 200hp class.
Sunday dawned, with crowds building quickly, ready for the 9am blast off. Once again there were fantastic, still conditions greeting competitors.

Superman had earned the pole position and the instant the flag dropped, you could see that it was going to be the same ‘catch us if you can’ attitude, as the year before. The Superman skiers, Daniel Graziano and Daniel Cotton were pumped and waving for more almost as soon as they surfaced.

Agitator followed them from the start area with the same gusto, the boat launching out of the water when Darren floored it.
The rest of the crews left with only a few problems and the crowd waited expectedly for the half way mark results to come over the PA.

When the spray settled it was Mark Cranny’s Hellrazor, with a mere 9 seconds over Agitator. Another 30 seconds back was Superman, followed closely by Hellbent and The Mistress, just 1 second apart.

The first of the Unlimited Inboard boats took the next placing, with Stinga, towing Jnr World Champion Jack Houston and superstar Ben Hackett a further 3 seconds back.

The race isn’t all about Super Class and the other classes saw some really quick ½ way efforts, which they hoped to emulate on the way home.

Back at the Start/ Finish line, the crowds were being entertained by some awesome Powerboat races by the UHPBC, as well as checking out the myriad of trade display tents.

With the news that the first boat had left Wisemans Ferry, they quickly returned to a great vantage point on the Marine Stadium banks. The anticipation increased as the commentators updated the crowd as boats passed thru iconic Hawkesbury river marker points.
The racing was as tight as it gets between the crews of Hellrazor and Agitator.

As the crowd surged to the water’s edge, Hellrazor came screaming around the last corner pulling some really big numbers and big trim and looked like they may have the race by the horns. As they slowed after the line the crowd was alerted to another boat appearing around the corner. It was Agitator and Darren and the boys were pulling every last bit of horsepower out of the mighty PFM motor !

Try as they may, it was to be Team Hell’s day though, with the smallest of margins, just 4/100ths of a second separating them after 120kms.

3rd in Super Class went to last year’s winner Superman, followed by The Mistress.

The Unlimited Class was an all the way win for Team Stinga Racing, followed by Andrew Griffin and Richard Souwer behind Burnin’. Andy Smith’s new twin turboed Wild Thing, towed Joel Massey and Jared Coey into 3rd place.

The Under 19 Boys was won by Stalker, towing Jamie Moret and Mitch Horan, even after one of the boys lost their balance doing a bunny hop for the crowd and lost their handles at the start.

The Edge won the 6 Litre class towing Reece Wood and Johnathon Earl, missing the record by just 9 seconds.

A new record was created by the super quick Cyclone Racing 2 in Unlimited Outboard. Towing Aaron Sawtell and Craig Gordon the guys stripped a massive 7 minutes off the previous record time.

8 Litre class saw yet another record go in the perfect conditions. Russell Dick and Travis Patterson beating the old mark by 1min 13secs behind Quick Decision.

Running Riot, towing Shane Bru and Steve Beatie took out the MOC class title with an emphatic win, as did Labdance in SMOC class towing Peter Hunter & Shaun Thomas.

Formula 2 class won by the quick Speedmaster boat, Masterstroke. Glenn Campbell towing two Australian 2011 Worlds team members in Kylee Jones and Trudi Stout to a new record.

Interestingly F2 was the fastest of the MOC, SMOC and F2 classes.

The crew from Brute Force won the Stock 6 Litre division convincingly, with a great ski by Brent Whitelaw & Adam Gulliver.
In a hotly contested under 16 boys, Se7en took the honours towing Jack Harrison and Jesse Burns.

The Open Womens class was won by current F2 Womens World Champion Leanne Campbell and 2 x World Champion Tania Teelow, behind Nick Feros’s Prima Donna in 55:53mins.

NSW Boat of the year, Shotgun, towed current Jnr girls World Champion Kelsey Feros and Danielle Coyte to a great victory in the Under 19 girls class, while Crystal Gordon and Jessica Smith paved the way to a win in the Under 16 Girls class behind Raicey.

The 200hp division is always a hotly contested class and this year again it did not disappoint.
Messy Racing, Tony Mithen’s quick little green Victorian LabSport boat came home nearly 3 minutes under the record towing Mac Batchelor and Ross Harris. No Fear and Medusa were 2nd and 3rd respectively and were also under the previous record time.

The 70mph class went to The Secret, towing Daniel & Scott Bothamley.

60mph class was won by Burn N Wood towing Qld champ Caroline Linden, alongside Adam Nolan.

Under 13 boys was won by Big Loll, towing Luke Harrison and Carter Robertson and the Under 13 Girls was won by Brooke Hammond and Emma Barnes behind Thunderstruck, with their proud Dad’s in the boat driving and observing. Critta came in 2nd and Mad Ranga in 3rd place.

The Hi-Tec Oils Hawkesbury 120 was a resounding success and the Committee, Volunteers, Judges and all others associated with the event are to be congratulated.

Congratulations to Mark Cranny, Damien Matthews and their champion skiers Jason Walmsley and Jake Tegart on your outright win with Hellrazor. It was especially great to see Jake take out his first ever major river title.

He is testament to how hard work and determination are rewarded in this sport.

** Full results pdf’s are @ www.skiracingnsw.com.au

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