Latest news from Stilwell Brothers Racing comes from Lake Karapiro on 3 – 4 March 2012 once again set the scene for Round 2 of the NZ F1 Powerboat Tour. With racing cancelled on Saturday due to the remnants of the storm that travelled across the North Island, Sunday proved to be an action packed day with all 3 of Round 2’s Tour races.
After qualifying 4th and a meagre 1/10th of a second behind Tour leader Malcolm Jamieson we looked forward to the first race knowing that our investment in a new propeller since Round 1 looked to be paying dividends. Despite battling with Malcolm Jamieson (KRB racing) for 3rd place most of the race, we settled for 4th. The big surprise was latecomer to the Tour, Anthony Robertson (Design Windows), who took out the race win, followed by Luke Sharp and Jamieson.
With Race 2 being a reverse grid race, we got a superb start and fought over 2nd place with Steve Pope from Cromwell for most of the race. Unfortunately, the second to last lap saw a momentary engine cut-out which was enough to let past Robertson and Sharp for 5th place. We were extremely disappointed with this as it would have given us quite a few points up on Sharp who is our main rival for second in the Tour at this stage.
With conditions worsening, Race 3 was rough, and we were happy to take another 4th place not having 10/10 confidence in the new boat yet. The action in this race was a large nose-dive/spin out by Sharp immediately after the race finish. Fortunately, no major damage was suffered to boat nor driver.
Check out the following link for a video of highlights of the racing so far: http:youtu.be/Q1bmM9-4ZMg (this is also accessible on our Video Gallery)
Overall, we are happy with the round result and going into Round 3 at Lake Rotoiti on 17-18 March we hope to have a home course advantage (although Malcolm Jamieson being from Picton also has a good knowledge of Rotoiti) and with the Tour only being half way through it is too early to call a winner at this stage. Bring on Rotoiti!!
Photo Credits to Jeremy Ward – www.shot360.co.nz