Saturday provided a brief weather window that saw three rounds of qualifying in the LS Class contested allowing the event to be classified and points awarded. The LS Class allows competitors to race any LS engine with a controlled CAM making it an affordable class to run.

With Keith’s Matt Malthouse side-lined due to delayed engine parts, it freed up two-time 2021 winner Bastian Mullan to extend his advantage at the top of the championship. He may not have expected though to play second-fiddle to the reigning champion, Kyle Elphinstone who was finally finding form after a challenging start to his title defence.

In the end, Elphinstone topped every timed session, although rookie Bastian Mullan – who stunned the field with his pace the last time the series competed at Cabarita – was improving with every session. The margin in the end just 42 one thousandths of a second, setting up what promises to be a tantalising final at Keith once Malthouse returns to the fold.

Third fastest in the end was local driver Paul Hill, although like his rivals, he couldn’t get to within four seconds of the leaders.

The battle for fourth position was the closest of the day, with the ever-improving Matt Riley getting the nod ahead of Jim Beaman and Mike Hessell. Riley at one stage running third, although on countback Hill was more than a second faster overall to take the final step on the podium.

As he did last time out at Cabarita, Nate Mullan very much played a secondary role to his older brother to support Bastian’s championship bid, but he was improving with every session and expected to make a challenge in the finals. The weather though impacted that opportunity as it did for Robert Westerink, a driver with solid LS-Class credentials who just couldn’t perfect the challenging rotation and was unable to record an official time.

LS-Class (after round four of six)

1. Bastian Mullan (Ripshift) – 135-points
2. Kyle Elphinstone (Blackout Racing) – 108
3. Nate Mullan (Ripshift) – 103
4. Matt Malthouse (NoodNutz Racing) – 102
5. Jim Beaman (JB Racing) – 90
6. Chris Edmonds (Solid Gold) – 76
7. Paul Hill (Slicer) – 60
8. Matt Riley (Toe Cutter) – 60
9. Dwayne Mezzadri (Unleashed) – 42
10. Robert Westerink (The Contractor) – 42
11. Mike Hessell (42)

In the Junior Development category Koby Bourke had a solid weekend in Lil Psycho though not without his own challenges after the long break. The teenager is growing so much (vertically) since he was last in the boat, that he may well need to relocate the seat for the coming ’22 season. Despite that he turned in progressively faster laps through qualifying and actually managed to card a time for a final ahead of the onset of the rain.

Junior Development (after round four of six)

1. Koby Bourke (Lil Psycho) – 144-points

The Penrite Australian V8 Superboats Championships season continues at the Spitwater Arena in Keith, South Australia on Saturday 26 March and the organisers will certainly be hoping for better weather.

Unprecedented weather conditions bringing a huge coastal front into the Cabarita Beach, NSW region of Australia would ultimately deliver record rainfall, forcing the cancelation and then evacuation of the circuit.

Despite the weather forecast changing by the minute, the Australian Formula Jet Sprint Association (AFJSA) and the Tweed Valley Jet Sprint Club elected to press on with the event. Saturday provided a brief weather window that saw three rounds of qualifying contested allowing the event to be classified and points awarded.

One of the big talking points ahead of the round surrounded the debut of an all new Australian-made PULSE hull for points leader Phonsy Mullan. The seven-time champion took the bold move to change boats mid-season, and from the smile on his face after the opening qualifier the move had been more than justified. Mullan was now relishing the opportunity to close the performance gap to reigning champion Slade Stanley.

Stanley though was lamenting a lack of performance. The Hazardous team were not one hundred percent comfortable through the opening two qualifiers despite setting the pace in Q1 before missing the rotation in Q2 whilst chasing the setup. Mullan meanwhile came out swinging in Q2 to top the timesheets with a best of 50.555 (to Stanley’s Q1 best of 51.684). The pair then traded blows in the final session where Stanley returned to the top of the time sheets with a 49.535 whilst Mullan could only manage 49.912 as the rain set in on Saturday afternoon.

Whilst the championship points leaders continued their tousle, behind them the former title holder Daryl Hutton continued his own development with his twin-turbo American Automotive machine. In the end a 51.208 classified him third ahead of fellow former champion Scott Krause who produced a 53.033 in the final session after failing to record a time in the first two timed runs.

Fifth place went to the Unlimited Superboat debutante Chris Edmonds. The LS-Class graduate was running a 900-horespower LSA powerplant originally built by JRE Race Engines for Slade Stanley. For Edmonds though this engine was his backup plan, as he has a twin-turbo small block Chevy was still under development. His 64.171 opening lap time was his only recorded time, although experience showed him that any time on the board is important.

With rain fall as much as 150mm per six-hour window Sunday dawned wet, leaving the AFJSA and the Tweed Club conceding that there was no alternative other than cancelation. This saw teams racing to pack up their gear in torrential rain to move to higher ground as floodwaters slowly cut all access roads out of the region.

Unlimited Superboat (after round four of six)

1. Slade Stanley (Hazardous) – 136-points
2. Phonsy Mullan (RAMJET) – 135
3. Scott Krause (KAOS) – 118
4. Daryl Hutton (Phoenix Lubricants) – 107
5. Glenn Roberts (Blown Budget) – 86
6. Ben Hathaway (NoodNutz Racing) – 80
7. Mitch Roylance (BlackJack) – 72
8. Mick Carroll (Excalibur) – 28
9. Chris Edmonds (Solid Gold) – 26
10. Daniel de Voigt (DEVO Racing) – 24

The Penrite Australian V8 Superboats Championships season continues at the Spitwater Arena in Keith, South Australia on Saturday 26 March and the organisers will certainly be hoping for better weather.

When PRW spoke to Sean Henshelwood from the AFJSA about the viewing figures the championship gets not only via social media but also across various TV platforms he said

Our Facebook page – V8 Superboats – is currently running at 7.2M people per month and we haven’t raced for eight months.

We also have a global TV presence off the back of Covid that rates to 300M homes from all corners of the globe with TV reproduced in multiple languages (including Mandarin). So, we’re on the crest of a wave now, sadly we may fall prey to mother nature which would be a pity after being away for so long, but fingers crossed!

So is it a case of ‘the harder you work the luckier you get’ as quoted by the golfing legend Gary Player?

I wasn’t aware of that one, but there’s some truth to it. I’ve been a race car fan my whole life, and for a brief time a driver, but found motorsport journalism was a way I could stay involved and make $$ instead of spending it. Back in 2006 was the first time I saw Jetboats. From then on, I was hooked and have been involved pretty much full time since then, morphing from print media into TV.

Sadly, his career in commentary and production with CTVS, a Beijing based production company for whom he produced the Audi Sport R8 LMS Cup for eight seasons, ended as Covid hit.

So, he turned to learning to produce TV and used his connections in Asia and elsewhere to open opportunities for Jetboats and it has (fortunately) just exploded from there Henshelwood continued

Our greatest challenge is finding a commercial partner to take advantage of the immense exposure we are currently generating. Arguably we are one of the highest rating sports in Australia now, but few people are actually aware of the value that presents. It is something we’re looking to address soon, but it was very much an issue of the cart and the horse… without a media profile, we’d have never attracted commercial support, so that’s one box ticked, now we just need to work on making it financially viable in the long term.

Henshelwood also credits the support and passion from their photographer Russell Puckeridge, who like him, reinvented himself to transition from stills to video (he shoots both at every race meeting), along with the foresight of the AFJSA board, led by Justin Roylance, who allowed them the freedom to pursue the project with almost complete autonomy in order to help push the sport into the spotlight.

With the prospect of Henshelwood having a 3600kms round trip to drive we hope the weather gods are on his side especially as they have a  ‘fleet’ of new entries coming into the sport, and record crowds attendance.. the future looks pretty good!

Sean Henshelwood from the AFJSA said

The track is set into a natural amphitheatre which provides excellent spectator viewing. The tight and twisting course is a favourite amongst many drivers and there are always some remarkably close times posted during the Cabarita meetings.

Leading the charge will be the thunderous Unlimited Superboat field where reigning World Champion Phonsy Mullan comes in as points leader ahead of the 2019 title holder and long-time rival Slade Stanley. Stanley (see above image) has been the benchmark for the sport since Mullan claimed his maiden world crown at Cabarita in late 2018. Last June though saw him make a rare mistake whilst comfortably leading the timesheets to invert his naturally aspirated 480ci ‘Hazardous’ into the channel, handing Mullan his first win in three years, and with it, the points lead.

After such a long break between races, Cabarita will provide plenty of action across all three senior classes. A lot has happened over the past eight months, notably an all-new hull for reigning champion Mullan, and the return of V8 Superboat royalty, with second-generation driver Tyler Finch bringing a new look ‘Loose Cannon’ back into the fold to take the fight to Unlimited points leader Mullan and Stanley.

Whilst a throwback to his father Dean’s bright orange championship winning livery, the new ‘Loose Cannon’ is not the boat the team used to take the 2007 and 2011 titles, although it is a close relative. The hull is a sister to their original ‘Stingray’ hull (now owned by Paul Gaston after a couple of seasons as ‘MANIAC’ with Tremayne Jukes), whilst the twin-turbo powerplant with which they pioneered the technology in the sport, is also built by Darren Farr, although a different engine to their original unit.

The Finch’s have always been at the forefront of the sport, and the knowledge they have in boat design and jet unit development will see them immediately running towards the front of the field, but whether after a lengthy sabbatical they can take the fight to Messrs Mullan and Stanley is yet to be seen, and as to the question of whether Dean Finch will make a return to the seat, that too is another unknown, but it makes for a tantalising close to the 2021 season.

In the 400-Class (International Group A) its tightly regulated nature always provides close racing, and the return to competition will see one of the biggest fields since 2018. The LS-Class has been the emerging story of the 2021 season, and there will be no shortage of contenders for the podium, although points leader Bastian Mullan will be looking to carry over the form, he showed at Cabarita last time out. Whilst the sole entrant in the Junior Development category will be back in action, as Queenslander Koby Bourke will be looking to gain more experience in ‘Lil Pyscho.’

Unlike past Cabarita rounds, each of the two days of competition will see the conclusion of a championship round, completing rounds four and five of the 2021 season.