Jetsprinting thundered into Taranaki on Saturday, the 14th of March, when the brand-new Mountain View Jetsprint Track hosted Round 4 of the 2025-26 NZ Jetsprint Championship.
The meeting attracted 35 race teams, seven NextGen drivers, truckloads of equipment, and hundreds of spectators.
Cool, partly cloudy conditions promised a great day of racing. Two vital issues quickly became clear to race teams: Follow the directions, and do not park on the grass.
Mountain View is the most complex track on this season’s championship circuit. Most teams made at least one wrong turn during qualifying. In addition, the safety crew flat out refloating boats that strayed out of the channels.
Fortunately, the ground was wet and slippery, minimising damage, and there were no serious injuries.
In the Southern Jet Superboat class, Simon and (navigator) Sarah Gibbon enthralled spectators with clean, quick runs all through qualifying and the first round of eliminations. In the 3-boat final, they finished third after parking their boat on the grass.
Mike Hessell and (navigator) Shaun White scored their best result of the season, taking second place in Superboats with a final-round elapsed time (ET) of 38.869 seconds.
Sam Newdick and (navigator) Shama Putaranui pretty much owned the track, recording the quickest qualifying and first round times. Their brilliant 36.337-second final run looked almost perfect.
Group A had featured identical podiums at Featherston, Whanganui, and Wanaka. Round 4 at Taranaki broke the pattern. Points leaders Matt Hareb and Hayden George were quickest in qualifying but spun out in the first round of eliminations.
Sam Gray and Walter Gooding stayed in the channels all day and took third place with a clean and tidy 42.209-second ET in the final, their first podium of the season. Kris Rasmussen and Holly Sutherland qualified well and clocked a noisy and very spectacular final round 38.459, adding a second place to their string of thirds.
After three second-place finishes, defending Group A champions Ollie Silverton and Amanda Kittow were visibly rapt with their stunning 37.670 final.
With the largest field (14 boats), MTW LS Class delivered exciting racing. Points leaders John Verry and Grace Alder spun out in the first elimination round, as did Conner Nairn and James Tuckey, who had been second on points after Round 3.
Jackson Hopkins and Dana Doyle reached the final but decided not to run due to an injury, settling for third place. Paddy and Jay Hayden used every inch of water and a bit of mud, clocking a thrilling 39.620. David Hopkins and Oliver Farquhar stole first place with a confident 39.446.
Crews in MTW Group B bucked the trend and stayed in the channels. The final eliminator kicked off with Andrew Craig and Scott Gouman, who spun out and took to the grass. Gemma Johnson and Richard Currie ran a tidy 42.399.
Hamish Clarke and Lisa Seator went hard out for 43.544 and second place. Johnson & Currie and Clarke & Seator each have two firsts and two seconds, with two rounds to go in the championship.
A group of seven young drivers demonstrated the new Nextgen jetsprint boats, single-seaters designed to challenge younger drivers without overtaxing them.
Next-gen drivers lap a shorter course without a navigator. Cooper Silverton was quickest around Mountain View with a 36.323-second ET, earning him the right to fly the chequered flag for a victory lap.
According to NZJSA President Julia Murray, “It’s been a challenging day for the racers. We expected a few issues, as there often are with new tracks.
“It’s an awesome facility, and a lot of time and effort has gone into creating it! It was a good crowd, and they got to see some technical racing. It’s great to have a track back in the Taranaki region.”
Racing continues with Round 5, on Sunday, the 1st of March 2026, at Shelter View Jet Sprint Park, 598 State Highway 4 (12 km north of Whanganui).
Header Image: Shot360 Photography
