Tough weekend at Windsor 2010

Created on Thursday, 23 September 2010 13:25

Photos: All The Torque Photography & Glen Laundy

A few setbacks during our Windsor weekend at the Upper Hawkesbury Powerboat Club certainly wasn't enough to stop the Tuff'E'Nuff Racing Team from having an absolute ball.

Dave Clark, Dave Murray, Mouse & Thommo all took the drive up fully loaded with the boat together with all the supplies for the weekend including a spare 530cui engine. They arrived nice and early on Thursday to check into the Avina Van Village at Vineyard, a short drive out of Windsor.

Although the bottle shop was high on the priority list for some, unfortunately the chemist shop was first on the list for driver Dave Clark who copped a heavy dose of the current flu outbreak.

Dave was complaining of aches & pains combined with dizziness & feeling light in the head and so as a safety precaution the team decided to keep the boat on the trailer for the first half of the weekend.

"I don't care what anyone thinks" Clark said on Saturday.

"I wouldn't even drive a ski boat at the moment- if I don't feel up to it I'm not driving the boat (Tuff'E'Nuff)."

As a result David was forced to watch his fellow competitors compete in the Les Spears, a race which he was at the pointy end of in 2009.

Come Sunday Dave still wasn't 100% but was feeling a little better and decided to have a go. A quick test run first up in the morning had the crowd on their feet and at one point probably had Sally (David's wife) covering her face in panic as the boat lifted right out the water mid straight. After returning to shore an oil seapage was spotted and the decision was made by team mechanic Mouse to change the engine- no point in unecessary risks on any of the equipment.

The boys did exceptionally well and although the boat wasn't ready for the first warm up race they made it back in time for the Puff Chesser Memorial heat not more than a couple of hours later. This saw Dave amongst a respectable field of boats and he quickly found his feet driving the new combination. Running slightly less power than the 'monster' engine, the boat ran smoothly and held it's head down the straight quite nicely. A solid drive saw Tuff'E'Nuff qualify for the final.

Dave ended up in pole 3 after two surprise withdrawals - firstly Brett Sheppard was out with Unleashed due to his engine locking up and then we were shocked when Barry Chesser could not get his boat started for the final of his dads race.

The start of the final was always going to be tense in between the other four boats and when the flag dropped Bruce Sanders in pole 4 got very untidy on board Red Bellies but Dave kept on the boards and was up with front runners Patriot and Rythum at the first turn.

Five blown boats on the tight river course resulted in 'soup' like conditions and by lap 2 all drivers were struggling in the rough water. Dave kept his head as usual and drove a very respectable race finishing in 5th place closely behind Red Bellies and Fixation.

With no racing in sight for a couple of months the boys have a chance for another breather and have a little more time to work on the 'monster' combo with the 16/71 hi helix supercharger. Stay tuned for more news & info coming soon.