MEDIA RELEASE 29 January 2007RED BELLIES RACING ESCAPE HIGH-SPEED CRASH |
|||||
Australian team Red Bellies Racing's debut in the New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Series was cut short by a high-speed crash yesterday. The 160km/hr accident occurred on Lake Taupo, with the team of Bruce Sanders and Colin Craven fortunate to escape serious injury. Prior to the incident, which occurred about halfway through the 100-mile race, the pair were displaying the same sort of impressive form which has taken them to six Australian titles in eight years. Red Bellies Racing was comfortably leading the Superlight Boat class, while also sitting among the Top Four in the 42 boat outright field. "It was going really well," Sanders explained. "We got a good hole-shot at the start and led down towards the first buoy, but then the Superclass boats came up next to us, and they beat us into the first turn. "After that, we were flying around the course; we were about
half a lap ahead of the other boats in our class, but still staying
in touch with the Superclass boats. "It was barrel rolling along the water sideways before it came to a stop, when Colin and I were able to swim out." |
|||||
Red Bellies Racing's New Zealand debut
Red Bellies Racing led their class |
|||||
"It could have been a lot worse," Sanders surmised. "We actually had to put a roll cage in the boat to race over here, and after today's incident I'm glad we did - that took the brunt of the force and saved us. "I've got a broken finger, put the bone straight through the knuckle, and we're both pretty sore, but otherwise okay. "We both took in a lot of water during the incident, fortunately we raced in fresh water at the bottom of a volcano here at Taupo, which was virtually drinking water; we would've been in trouble if it was salt water we were ingesting." The Australians will now embark on an extensive rebuild of the Red Bellies Racer, before tackling Round 2 of the series at Maraetai on February 10. "We'll be ready to race again in a fortnight's time," Sanders said. "We were all going to go home between rounds, but now we'll stay here in New Zealand for a couple of extra days, get stuck in and fix it. "It will be a pretty big job, and there'll probably be over 10 thousand dollars of damage by the time we get through it all. "Fortunately we've already been able to get both engines working again, but the boat is banged up and full of water having been underwater for three hours, the electronics will be gone and the canopy is pretty badly damaged. "But we'll get it fixed then look to pick up where we left of before the crash at Maraetai." Red Bellies Offshore Racing is supported by Seabreeze Hotel, Barwil
Unitor Ships Service, Mainlube, Always Stainless, Watersports Marine,
Total Fencing Solutions, Steve Cotton Painting, Hosting Impact and
Argo Engineering. Don't forget to bookmark our site for more up to date news on
Red Bellies Racing |
|||||
© 2007 Red Bellies
Racing. All Rights Reserved.
Website Designed and Hosted by
Hosting Impact
www.hostingimpact.com "Creating
Your Website Presence"