Non-stop action and nail-biting finals thrilled spectators at the Shelter View Jetsprints on Sunday, the 1st of March.
Forty-one race teams fronted up for Round 5 of the NZ Jetsprint Championship at Shelter View Jet Sprint Park near Whanganui. Racing started early under a picture-perfect sky, fine and warm with some clouds. By mid-morning, the meeting was looking good, with plenty of racing and no significant crashes.
Leading up to the Southern Jet Superboats final, points leaders Sam Newdick and (navigator) Shama Putaranui recorded five consecutive sub-46-second runs, while everyone else was very happy to complete the course in less than 48 seconds. In the final, Mike Hessell and (navigator) Shaun White were looking strong until they lost power and ran aground.
Still, they were not complaining about finishing in third place. Next out, Simon and Sarah Gibbon used every inch of water on their way to a super aggressive 47.290-second elapsed time. Then came Newdick and Putaranui, stunning onlookers with a confident 44.289-second ET: More than 2 seconds quicker than anyone, in any class, achieved on the day.
Four teams dominated Group A, but mechanical trouble forced Kris Rasmussen and navigator Holly Sutherland to retire after a great performance in the first (nine-boat) elimination round.
In the final, Ross Travers and Jackie Hawker took third place with a very smooth 48.215. Also smooth and ferocious to boot, Matt Hareb and Hayden George put 46.965 on the clock. Defending champions Ollie Silverton and Amanda Kittow, with a brand-new hull, vanquished Hareb and George with a tidy and very tight 46.257-second ET.
The LS Class delivered a nail-biting re-run of the previous final at Taranaki, with Paddy and Jay Haden set to race two separate teams sharing boat number 67. First out of the starting pool was Jackson Hopkins, taking navigational advice from Dana Doyle. They clocked 49.718, only the second LS team to record a 49-second ET.
Next out, Paddy and Jay Haden stamped another 49 on their timesheet: 49.603 to be precise. Dave Hopkins had won in Taranaki, but his son Jackson had not raced in the final due to an injury. Who would be quicker in boat number 67? Father or son? Driving smoothly, tidily, and very noisily, Dave Hopkins and Shelley Radford stopped the clock at 49.975, Third place.
Group B continues to deliver close, exciting racing, dominated by the rivalry between equal points leaders Hamish Clarke (navigator Lisa Seator) and Gemma Johnson (with Richard Currie).
In the final, they faced off against Andrew Craig and (navigator) Scott Gouman, who made a navigational error and finished third with a 1 minute 2 second final run. Clarke and Seator ran a faultless 53.343: their best time of the day. Johnson and Currie were poetry in (noisy) motion, faultlessly using every drop of water and stopping the clock at 52.261 seconds. Johnson now has three wins from five starts in her first season of championship jetsprinting.
The NextGen training programme continues to impress. Seven young drivers lapped a shortened course, sharing four purpose-built single-seaters. Quickest on the day were Summer Hareb, Ryan Patterson, and Cooper Silverton. Cooper’s 48.588-second ET earned him the right to fly the chequered flag for a victory lap, during which he showed off his passion for elegant muddy doughnuts.
According to NZ Jetsprint Association President Julia Murray, “We knew it would be challenging to fit 48 teams into one day with four qualifying rounds plus the Top 9, Top 6 and Top 3. We are pretty happy to achieve that! Everything fell into place. With good weather and very few crashes, we were able to keep things running smoothly. Great to have the podium placings mixed up again. The final round is certainly going to be interesting!”
Racing continues with Professionals Real Estate Round 6, on Saturday the 21st of March 2026 at Mountain View Jetsprint Track, 382 Croydon Road, Stratford.
Header Image: Shot360 Photography
