2013 Wisemans Ferry Top End Sprint results

Southern Racer Steals the Silverware

For the sixth time since re-invigorating the race, the NSW Hydroplane Club once again hosted the 2013 Wisemans Ferry Realty Top End Sprint race on the Hawkesbury River. And while the race can be described as a mini-Bridge to Bridge, the Top End Sprint is growing in prestige in its own right. Enough so, that this year the event attracted not only nearly forty entrants, but competitors travelled from all over the East coast to be a part of the high speed fun.

Once again, the race was integrated into the race weekend for the Hawkesbury 120 water ski race. After scrutineering and final entries on the Saturday, race day Sunday began with an early heavy fog that threatened to delay the start of the first ski leg. Soon after the sun rose over the mountain at the Sackville Ski Gardens start line, the fog quickly burned off, and all entrants continued their final preparations.

The premier class of Superclass was an all sponsoned affair. Defending race winner, Paul Vella couldn’t manage to get his 6litre hydro, Impatient, turned around and race ready in time to attempt a back up win. But three other ‘three-pointer’ hydros lined to take the challenge. In an attempt to turn around their bad luck from non-finishes in the Bridge to Bridge earlier in the year, Darren Milgate brought his big red hydro, Hydrolust, up from Victoria. And Scott Hermann brought his relatively new 4.6litre hydro Rumler Racing, back to its spiritual home on the Hawkesbury. Scott’s boat is actually still the current Top End Sprint record holder when campaigned by a young Ricky Howard. While he did have better luck in the Bridge race compared to Darren and Scott, Andrew Petty once again lined up his hot 5litre Holden V8 hydro Stack Injection to try and add his name to the trophy.

Lined up against the hydros were two Hawkesbury Valley locals in their KT inboard tunnels. Young Dylan Greentree revved up his refreshed the Tunnel Vision, in it first outing after a rollover at Dargle just a couple of months earlier. Seasoned campaigner Alam Smith led the Smith clan contingent in the race with the big River Dancer KT that just missed out on being ready for the Bridge to Bridge. And squeezed in to keep the inboarders honest, Corey Davoll lined up his big outboard tunnel boat Team 95.

At the drop of the flag, it was the bigger capacity Hydrolust and Team 95 that got the jump on the rest of the field. It didn’t take long for a couple of the other contenders to wind up to peg back the to two at the pointy end. At the end of Sackville Straight, it was three wide diving into the right hander. Hydrolust took full advantage of the inside line, hooking up on the fin nicely, getting a decent break of a roostertail on the others on the exit of the turn. Stack Injection in the middle of the river hooked in, and bogged down slightly. In the interest getting out of the as soon as he could, grabbed more right and the big four-bladed prop tossed the transom around a bit. The boat slid to the left in a little twitch, grabbed again and Andrew ended up in second into the next straight. Out on the outside, Team 95 headed into the turn, hugging the outside of Stack Injection. As the hydro skipped left, it threw up a bit of a wash and poor old Corey copped a gold old fashion hose down. Whilst getting out of the turn clearly in third, frustratingly Team 95 soon expired. Back in lane two, Rumler Racing had third place handed to Scotty as he was clear of the two KTs. The bigger engined River Dancer took some time to wind out to top speed, but the boat clearly down on pace from the hydros and the outboard. The boat never managing to get to its full potential top speed. Whilst down on horsepower in comparison, Tunnel Vision rounded out the Superclass field having to go the long way round the first turn. But Dylan’s strength lies in consistency and reliability.

Back up the pointy end, Hydrolust managed to stretch the legs on the big 350 Chev and stretch out the lead in the process. In hot pursuit Stack Injection was looking for any advantage in the course layout. This meant a few crosses of the wake from the boat in front. On one of the crosses the boat did few big sponson walks and came down hard. This caused the boat’s ECU to shut the engine down completely. In the following frustrating 15 seconds or so, the boat winds down to a near complete stop with Hydrolust disappearing into the distance. Finally the engines fires into life again and the chase is on again. At the front, the pace was still on, but Darren was having his own issues. A vibration started to creep in. Thanks to the cushion Darren had over the field, he was able to back off a few RPM while still keeping clearly out in front. But Darren made sure he kept an eye on the mirrors for any late chargers. Hydrolust kept his nose clean and crossed the finish line with a decent gap back to a fast finishing Stack Injection. Less than two minutes later, Rumler Racing crossed the line a little down on speed, which was diagnosed later as a dropped valve in the Holden V8. And Dylan Greentree continued his strong run of race event finishes, being the fourth boat across the line. River Dancer wasn’t able to clear the throat of the engine, and Alan Smith pulled the pin and turned into South Creek before crossing the finish line.

The second wave to leave Sackville was five big capacity displacements. Former BAD boat driver Norm MacMillan brought down his rather unique boat, To Screw, that sports twin stern drive legs bolted to the transom. All Black was back to try and improve on Grant Jury’s third outright placing from last year. Supernatural, a near brand new 21ft Force sterndrive had its first race. And coincidently the crew were pitted against its previous boat The Secret. Regular long distance racer and Hawkesbury River local Kallawatta was hoping to turn around his bad luck of last minute mechanical dramas, resulting in DNS from this year’s Bridge and last year’s Top End Sprint. Frustratingly the luck didn’t changed and the crew registered a DNF. The big black twin carby Big Block v-drive Kiwi piloted All Black flew home, to once again register a 3rd place outright.

Two waves of outboard monos had a great range hull styles and vintages. But the classes were responsible for plenty of quick outright times. Labsports, Bullets and a Force hull or two were the weapons of choice. The two waves continued with the strong performances and reliability that modern outboards have, with only one of the 10 entrants not making it to the finish line.

Almost matching the entry numbers of the outboards, eight 6litre and Prostock boats lined up for their chance at taking the top end. One of boats new to power boat racing, Naughty, wound out to a big speed and ended up registering a top 5 outright finish. Whilst there were some good race times registered the other end of the scale saw The Eight Ball regret a last minute fuel jet change in the carby the night before. The result causing the Chev V8 to bog down too much in the corners. Although the boat did get to wind out along Pitt Town straight to nice top speed. Two of the 6litres had even less luck, with Mick Greentree (the second of three Greentree clan entrants) in IXLR8 having to pull into the bank at Pitt Town ramp. Another well known name in power boat racing also had dramas. Michael Kilpatrick in Special K, earned a split oil hose, causing the necessary fluid to be pumped out on to the floor of the boat. But there was a silver lining to young Michael’s weekend, with his name being drawn out of the hat for the bonus ‘lucky door prize’ for all entrants and volunteers, to win an accommodation package on the Gold Coast. The prize graciously offered by NSWHC supporter The Waterford on Main.

Three hydros of various vintages and capacities filled out the Division 2 / Vintage Hydro class. Warren Hamaty was working overtime in the lead up to the event to make sure his 253 Holden V8 powered, Get Roughed, was ready in time. Warren was working towards breaking a long-time hoodoo that he has with the river. Frustratingly the boat has registered DNFs in the majority of Bridge and Top End Sprint races in the last few years. But to Warren’s credit, he comes back each time hoping ‘this will be the one’. I wish we could say that the 2013 Top End Sprint was the one, but unfortunately we can’t. It’s got to be next year Warren. Wayne Hayter brought along his beautiful 21ft 454 Chev powered vintage hydro, Classic Racing, to play once again. Wayne let it all hang out and fired the ‘old girl’ down the river to register a sub-12 minute race time. Thrifty Too, the other vintage hydro was always going to need to punch above his weight, with a much smaller capacity of only 3litres punching out the ponies. In the washing machine like conditions of the starting area, Thrifty Too had a deficit of around 50m once the flag dropped on the start boat. And while the boat showed some good speed, it simply wasn’t able to pull back any time on the big Classic Racing.

The final wave away was out small outboard class. The second entry from the Smith clan saw Tracey Pugsley strap into the very neat little tunnel boat, Queen B. Sure, the final race time didn’t set the river on fire, but the boat is in continued development for the next generation of Dargle Valley-based racer to take the wheel in the future. Misty is Terry Hey’s ‘big race’ boat, but still only 60hp and approx 14ft. Some performance tuning must have taken place in the last 12 months, as Terry managed to take a massive minute and a half off his time from last year. Sure enough it isn’t an outboard, but the lone rear-seater skiff boat Phoenix was a good speed match for this wave. John Scott pedalled the very traditional looking Everingham all the way to Windsor. The boat having some minor mechanical issues that did affect the end race time, but the pair still made it home.

After the race was run and won, most competitors were able to hang around and tell battle stories of what could have or should have been, before the official race times were announced. The trophy presentation was a bitter sweet situation where we saw the silverware heading south out of the state, but certainly to a worthy winner in Hydrolust and Darren Milgate. Congratulations! And we hope to see you back to defend the trophy.

A big thanks to the event’s major sponsor Wisemans Ferry Realty, additional support from The Waterford on Main, along all of the fantastic assistance the NSW Hydroplane Club received from the Upper Hawkesbury Power Boat Club, Dargle Valley Boat Club and Sackville Ski Gardens, along with our own club members and all other volunteers. We would also like to thank the Hawkesbury 120 committee and Ski Racing NSW for once again inviting us to be part of their event. Let’s hope we get to do it all again in 2014.

Full results table as per starting waves:

Hydrolust		Stack Injection
Rumler Racing		Tunnel Vision
River Dancer		All Black
To Screw		The Secret
Supernatural		Flashpoint
Delinquent		Stealth
Dusty Devil		Unleashed
Naughty		Nanna Racing
Bloodshot		Deception
The Toad		The Eight Ball
Handfull		oodshot
Classic Racing		Thrity Too
Queen B		Misty
Phoenix

Race videos:

Compilation - A great mix of onboard footage, thanks to Tank TV Productions

Stack Injection - Andrew Petty - Superclass - 2nd Outright

The Eight Ball - Andrew Sonter - 6litre Displacement

Thrifty Too - Peter Randall - Div2 Hydro

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