Blue Derry wins Dart River jet boat race

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 21

Blue Derry wins Dart River jet boat race

Blue Derry, of Blenheim, with a win in the recent Dart River race in the open class, now moves into second place in the Businessworld Computers series for the 10-race South Island circuit for jet boats.

He is now 41 points behind the class leader Michael Pooley, of Motunau, who did not race at Glenorchy.

The over-all winner was Tony Gillespie, of Cromwell, driving his new tunnel hull former Tony Ward alloy boat, powered by a 302 c.i. Ford. Local knowledge of the river certainly helped as the river was dirty and many blind channels took their toll. Peter Muff, of Christchurch, leading the class four group, selected the wrong channel. He finished up aground but led another four boats in as well. They all lost valuable time but Muff eventually finished a very creditable fourth in his class. His 139 points in class four assures him of the championship, even allowing that there are still two more races. He is 67 points ahead of Richard Brons, of Christchurch, who was fifth in the Dart River race. Warren Walker, also of Christchurch, was second behind Gillespie and his total points are now only nine behind Brons. Wayne McKenzie of Lumsden, who has had three starts for three wins in the very competitive class three, moved up two classes and

won again. He headed Chris Goom of Christchurch, by just over two minutes, with Colin Smith, of Winton, in third place. The class leader, Alan Saville, of Christchurch, did not finish, but still leads the class by five points from Goom. Class three was won by Bruce Collins, of Southland, followed by Blair Smith, of Christchurch, with his father, the well-known driver, Howard Smith as crew, and the only woman entrant, Margaret Roberts, also of Christchurch was third. This class is still led by John Watson (Christchurch) on 109 points, followed by Curt Neilson (Christchurch) on 82 and Roberts on 80. Merv Cox (Christchurch) easily won class two and his 20 points now puts him in an unassailable position of 146 points for the series. Ray Watson (Christchurch) took the Ford V 6 class from Keith Miller, of Gore and now moves into second place, five points ahead of Bruce Street (Christchurch) and only 20 behind the class leader, Denis Warner, also of Christchurch.

Ewan Thompson, his wife and crew were flown to hospital by helicopter after an accident. His boat collided with a sandbar.

There were 33 starters in last week-end’s event, but only 24 boats finished the tough course.