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TEAM GREGORY RACING : NEWS
TEAM GREGORY RACING
NEWS
Older Entries
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Tue, 24 Apr 2007
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| Update |
As you can see I have updated my website – this
coincides with me getting my ass into gear with
The Game itself. After having a much needed year
off after my accident I’m feeling fresh and
rejuvenated and looking forward to running next
season. After talking to a few of the boys, it
looks like we may have a fairly interesting field
of V8 flatties running next season… to name a few
just locally… Steven Denham has bought Razors
Edge and will be running a big block chev, Mike
Wotton has traded his 3 litre engine in Madison
Blues for a small block chev, and Mike Denham is
talking about repairing Captain Manta for next
season. We are in the midst of talking about
initiating a drivers club for the guys to ensure
we stick together and more importantly, race
together! Once you get a group of V8s on the
water, the noise alone will draw people to watch
and hopefully lead to more bums in seats. Watch
this space!
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Posted 23:46
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Sat, 14 Apr 2007
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| Easter Regatta |
Well Easter has been and gone and Wellington put
on perfect weather once again for another
successful race meet. Unfortunately this year
the turnout of boats was piss poor, but for those
boats that did turn up there was plenty of racing
to be had… with those who had bought enough gas
with them having ten races each over the two
days. The race programme for Saturday provided
scratch racing for all classes. Sunday provided
handicap racing for all but the Formula 1 boats,
who were content to continue racing as was run on
Saturday.
Due to the lack of entries, the Formula 1 North
Island title was not contested. Although there
was only four Formula 1 boats that turned up,
some good (close) racing was had, with the
placings being shared amongst them all. No boats
turned up on the day to contest the North Island
Formula 2 title, so the decision was made to
invite the Formula 3 Class to run up.
Congratulations go to Jamie Hargraves in
Instigator who won the title from Scott Dennis in
Velocity on a countback, as both had won a first
and a second in one of the heats. Third went to
Brendon Cornes in Total Chaos, with Jam and
Vindicator completing the field.
Series 3000 was joined by Terry McKinstry in the
Prostock Flattie First Offence on Saturday and
due to the attrition rate of the Formula 3 boats,
Instigator, Velocity and Vindicator on Sunday.
Unfortunately racing took its toll on the
hydroplanes on the Saturday, which saw Jamie
Knight in Phantom and Tracy Gapper in Tempo II
having to pull out of Sunday’s racing… Jamie with
oil pressure problems and Tracy after putting a
hole in his boat. The honours for the Series
3000/Prostock races were shared by Paul Robinson
in Going Going Gone and Geoff Noble in Ambush on
Saturday, however things proved different with
the handicap racing with the placings shared
between Steve Denham in Venom, Geoff Noble in
Ambush, and Mark Patching in Vindicator. The
Packer brothers (Malcolm and Bruce) in Miss Weta
and Brooster respectively, might have had a
better showing were it not for them both being
disqualified – Malcolm for a right hand turn and
Bruce for breaking his time.
The two feature races for the weekend were the
Wellington Winter Cup and the King of the
Harbour. Both races were close fought battles
between Luke Sharp in Sierra and Tony Latimer in
Patriot. Due to the closeness of the racing,
unfortunately Luke missed a turn buoy in both of
these races. He did however have the good sense
to complete the turn properly in each case to
come home second in the King of the Harbour and
third in the Winter Cup. Hard luck Luke! Peter
and Ian Thomas are not to be forgotten in The
Advocate coming in second in the Winter Cup and
third in the King of the Harbour… nice to see you
go home from Wellington dry this time.
A great weekends racing was had by all. We all
know boaties look forward to a cold beer at the
end of a days racing and due to the tight race
schedule, the bar was open earlier than usual…
which we hope was appreciated?! Thanks go to the
ambulance staff who were not needed this weekend
but rewarded regardless but being taken out in a
fun mock race with Bruce and Malcolm Packer in
Miss Weta and Brooster.Thank you also to Harvey
and Diane who travelled all the way down from
Waiuku to lend a hand running the event – your
expertise, company and sense of humour were most
appreciated.
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Posted 00:07
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Mon, 26 Mar 2007
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| Wellington Powerboat Club |
The Wellington club recently ran a Club Day with
six Series 3000 flatties in group one, a mix of
Hydro’s and F3 tunnels in group two and 11 jet
skis making up group three. This made for a
great afternoons’ racing (a club day of old one
might say – and many did!). With fifteen races in
three hours, there were four handicap races per
class, one of which for Wellington Club boats
only. This race was and narrowly won by a hard
charging Malcolm Packer in Miss Weta… if only
Andrea Robinson in Star Trax made the start on
time. Andrea was 7 seconds late at the start
which left her a boat length short at the finish
line, followed closely by Bruce Packer in
Brooster. The final race of the day was an all-
in, clock start scratch race for circuit boats
only, which turned out to be a great race with
many mixed class battles throughout with boats
like Ambush, Tempo 2, Velocity, Going Going Gone,
and Wild Thing. The race was eventually won by
Jamie Knight in his Grand National boat Phantom.
We now look forward to the Easter Regatta to be
held for the third year in a row in Wellington.
The Club will host the F1 and F2 North Island
titles, F1 Series, the Wellington Winter Cup and
the KING OF THE HARBOUR.
Racing will commence at 9.00am on both days
(weather permitting) at Porirua Harbour,
Onepoto. If you want to race, make sure you’re
there for scrutineering at 7.30am. We are
restricted by the tide at Wellington and we aim
to start on time! We look forward to seeing you
there for what promises to be an exciting
weekends’ racing. As for The Game things
are still a little bit up in the air at the moment
With several options available to me it takes
time to make the right decision.
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Posted 03:16
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Sun, 18 Feb 2007
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| update |
Well as you may have noticed I haven’t been
around the boating seen at all lately and I don’t
know when or even if I will be attending any
meetings in the near future. After 18 years
racing without a break I’ve found myself feeling
pretty disillusioned with the sport that I once
loved. The boat has been signwriten and I’ll
upload some pics shortly. I’ve been offered a
great engine for the boat and yes it’s very
tempting but shelling out the big bucks for that
I could own myself a very competitive car in
another sport that I have followed all my life
(whish I could make up my mind), anyway time will
tell. Congratulations go out to Even White in
Wasted Nights for winning the North Island
ProStock title at Wanganui recently. As for the
Nationals
I think the jury’s still out and I would be
interested to see the numbers of boats per class
that contested both rounds. Anyway
congratulations to Craig Stevenson in Kaos for
taking out
the NZ ProCom title.
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Posted 23:34
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Sun, 07 Jan 2007
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| I've Been Thinking |
With the increasing cost to run regattas, club
days and the like and declining numbers in
registered boats in their respective clubs, I got
to thinking on how we could improve the sport
that I love. With many clubs now on the verge of
financial downfall I feel we have too many clubs,
not that I want to see any clubs disappear… its
more important that we don’t lose their racing
water!! With that in mind I propose that we drop
zones altogether and reduce the number of clubs
to six, with each club having two or more racing
venues available to them. Starting in the South
Island, I would have Southland, Kaniere and
Scenicland combine to form one club with Oreti
River, Lake Kaniere and Dilmans Dam as their
venues. New Brighton and Rotoiti would combine
with Lake Hood, Lake Forsyth, Lake Rotoiti and
the like as their venues. Wellington and
Wairarapa to combine with Onepoto and Wellington
Harbours along with the Rumahanga River as their
venues. Manawatu and Wanganui to combine with
their respective rivers as venues. Geyserland and
Bay of Plenty to combine with Mangakino, Ngakuru,
Lake Rotoma and the like as their venues.
And finally, Cambridge/Waikato to combine with
Manukau/Auckland with Manukau
Harbour, Lake D and Lake Karapiro as their
venues. So that’s my six clubs with one member
from each club appointed to the Executive along
with the President, Secretary and Treasurer. I’m
not sure how feasible or logistical this would be
but this is the way many other sports are going,
with the “less is more” attitude. It’s a lot
easier to get six clubs all heading in the same
direction and each club would have more members
to call on in the running of regattas and more
income from subs etc. These are only my thoughts…
please feel free to comment and place feedback.
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Posted 00:11
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