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Wade on Worlds Round 2

Wade Bennett provides this full report of round two racing at Moreton Bay.

Sunrise saw the arrival of Race number #2 of the 17th World Championships. It revealed a completely different wind and water combination, which was going to involve much more high speed racing.

Organisers got into action right from day break, running boats over and along the whole course to encourage the wildlife to have breakfast elsewhere. This approach proved to be very successful and racing started on time.

First to hit the water was the Open & F2 Women. All ladies had to follow up directly from Sunday’s racing, without any lay day break to recover optimally. All, but 3 left the start area at warp speed on the flatter conditions.

Katelin Wendt, Adelaide Cox and Lauryn Eagle all got cracking starts in Open Women, while in the F2 class, there was a mass of boats in each wave, all of them flying.  The Aussie crews of Still Kid’n and Target Racing hit trouble at the very first turn buoy, with both spinning out, one by accident, one for safety’s sake. This meant that both Trudi Stout and the winner of F2 the previous day, Leanne Campbell, had to use the time that they had left to catch back up to the leaders. Back in the Open Womens class, every driver would have been determined to get it right and all cleared the Finish Boat, without any early, confusing, sharp left turn this time and flew down the front straight.

Katelin Wendt (USA) and Lauryn Eagle (AUS) were out front, leading the way, with White Noiz, towing Kiwi Adelaide Cox, and Erin Saunders (USA), behind Prime Time, keeping them honest. As the race progressed, crowds were treated to some awesome racing.

In F2, Tania Teelow had done some blinders of laps, behind With Envy and was leading wave one comfortably. Also in her wave we saw Lena Feringa, from Belgium and Katharina Hebenstreit from Austria, skiing really well.  Jordan Bradley (NZ) was leading the 2nd wave and overall by now behind Sacrifice, but motor gremlins ended her run, bringing Tania Teelow forward to the lead.

In the Open Womens class, there was a fantastic duel going on for the lead. Kaitlin Wendt had pulled out by a rope length or two, with Lauryn, Adelaide and Katharina, staging all out war behind her. This went on for many laps and with the flat water gone, no skier or driver was ready to concede anything. The open women took the front turn 4 wide, raising cheers from the crowd as they willed them on. The shock withdrawal of the ever reliable Superman saw Lauryn’s hard work go down the drain for the day.

In F2 Jordan Bradley was now pulling out of the race, and throwing away her hard earned lead, in what must have been a horrible development for her and the Sacrifice crew. She was joined by Columbia Cox, but the White Noiz crew got her up and racing again soon after.

It was a close duel between the two Americans Erin Saunders & round 1 winner Katelin Wendt, but it was Erin who forged ahead to win Open Womens with Katelin taking second about a half a minute back. Victoria’s Maddi Boyer notched up a 3rd behind Strictly Business.

In the F2 class, it was With Envy towing 2 time World Champ Tania Teelow, in first place, earning those valuable 1000 points to her tally. Lena Feringa behind Revolution racing came in in 2nd place, nearly passing Tania on the finish line and 3rd going to Katharina Herbenstreit behind Stormy. Special mention has to go to both Trudi Stout and Leanne Campbell, who came home eventually in the 4th & 5th positions. They kept a cool head after the turn buoy spin outs and really pushed each other to catch back up to the field.

After this race, everyone paid tribute and remembrance to the innocents of 9/11, on this 10th anniversary, with a minute’s silence.

The Junior Boys and Girls classes were next to hit the course and headed up the straight for the first time. Aussie defending Junior Champion, Jack Houston, got a cracker of a start and took an immediate small lead, from Jake Frame (GB), Lloyd Williams (AUS) and Trevor Wendt (USA).

In Junior girls Kelsey Feros (AUS) also did a great start, but she was soon caught up to by defending Junior Girls Champion Yolien Borman (BEL), Tayla Wright (AUS), behind ORSM and Columbia Cox (NZ), behind White Noiz.

With Jack & Stinga pulling more and more rope lengths in the lead, a fight had broken out in the race, as Jake frame and Trevor Wendt jostled for the 2nd and 3rd placing. Lloyd Woolman was running 4th, understandable after hyper extending his knee in the race the day before. Mitchell Horan (NZ), skiing behind Twenty Four, was sitting happily in 5th at this point, circulating very consistently.

The race between the girls was turning into a battle between Kelsey and Yolien, with the lead changing hands several times. Yolien had the outside running of the pair, so was really working hard to keep Kelsey in check.

Receiving the Chequered flag and winning his race by over a minute was Jack Houston. Second place went to Trevor Wendt, only just beating home a super quick Thundernuts, towing Lloyd Woolman, by 4 seconds. Mitchell Horan came home in a respectable 4th placing.

Kelsey took the line honours for a 2nd day in a row. Yolien was next thru, only 15 seconds behind and 3rd place went to Aussie Tayla Wright, skiing behind Neville Freemans super quick ORSM. Columbia Cox recovered from her stop on course to come in a lap down, but in 4th position.

The weather conditions had really eased off during the Junior race and everyone took up a great vantage point to check out the world’s best men in action next up. As they hit the pedal to the metal once the flag dropped, all 6 Open Men’s skiers got away cleanly, as did all of the F2 class crews.

Aussies Chris Stout and Peter Procter charged into the lead, closely tailed by Troy Hooker (USA) and Ben Gulley (AUS), behind Merc Force. Russell Cox (GB) and Jake Lynch (GB) were also there, all skiers loving the smooth conditions to get a good head of steam up. They would have been racing at speeds in excess of 100mph before the water started to chop up.

In F2 Mens 1st wave Mark Weaver (AUS), Grant ‘Pidge’Turner (AUS), Daniel Cotton (AUS), Dave Vansteelant (BEL) Andy Anderson (USA) and Mark Avella (ESP) were all running hard to the first turn buoy, six boats wide Wave 2 in F2 Mens were away, in pursuit of those that they’d just watched start 30 seconds before. Dave Sewell (GB) behind Bernico Racing had pole 1 and made the most of it.

The F2 crews tried really hard, but just couldn’t rope in Team Weaver, who seemed to have around 3 or 4 mph on them, along with ocean water specialist Mark Weaver from Cairns on the back.

All of the action in this race though was unfolding in the Open Mens duel between Stouty and Pete. It had everything, making, then losing rope lengths, tactical driving by Noel Griffin and Marcus Cranny in Burnin’ and Tru Blue looking for the inside run, traffic getting in the way, really well calculated ‘attacks’ …and this went on race long!

Stouty was fortunate to have won the day before, thus getting pole #1 in the day’s draw. It must have been so frustrating for Team Hell in Tru Blue, but to their credit they did everything possible to gain an advantage some-how.

The F2 crews were really locked in battle too. Mark Weaver was still leading and making up still more ground on the others. 2nd to him was Andy Anderson, followed by Pidge, Cotton, Vansteelant and Avella all breathing down their necks and producing some outstanding racing.

Merc Force, towing Ben Gulley was forced to retire with motor issues, but they did get it up and running to record a finish, so all was not lost. The Battle Royale between Chris and Pete continued, with no sign of either athlete succumbing to fatigue or exhaustion, as they weaved in and out of overtaken crews. One lap it would be Pete down a rope length, then the next lap would see them once again side by side. The crowd were really getting into this epic duel and people were setting up a good position to see how it all finished.

Dave, Tim and Troy were going hoarse calling the race over the mikes, with Tim and Wade watching the live feed for developments too, at the far end of the course.

By the end of the race, it was to be Stouty, by just 6 seconds, from Pete, with Russell Cox (GB) 3rd, behind 99 Psycho Clowns F1, 5 laps down on the flying Aussies.

In the Mens F2, the final result was a win notched up by Team Weaver, followed home by Pidge behind Target, then Daniel Cotton behind Atomic Racing.

It proved to be a fantastic race day after the wind, rain, delays and dramas the two previous days. There was quite a big crowd, considering it was a Monday, and none of them would have gone home disappointed or wanting to see even more ski racing. Everyone put on an awesome days racing.

Congrats to all winners and place getters and to ski racing Queensland for hosting these world titles at such a great location.

The next scheduled race is for Wednesday, so make sure that you catch the live feed via either www.skiracingworlds.com.au or www.skirace.net

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