MEDIA RELEASE - Monday, 6 March 2007RED BELLIES OUT TO START UPWARD CHARGE IN WELLINGTON |
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Ahead of the Southern-most round of the New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Series at Wellington this weekend, Australian squad Red Bellies Racing are keen to ensure the lowest point of their 2007 campaign is behind them. With three rounds now completed, the team have little to show for their efforts, despite impressive pace shown on debut at Taupo prior to a high-speed crash. The incident led to further problems at Maraetai and Gulf Harbour, with the Nelson Bay-based team's pace restricted by mechanical problems in each instance. "The crash at Taupo set us back quite a bit from where we wanted to be," Sanders admits. "Combined with the fact that we are commuting between Australia and New Zealand for each round, it put us behind the eight-ball in terms of preparation for Maraetai and Gulf Harbour. "Without the opportunity to spend the full two weeks between each round working on the boat, or a chance to test it and identify problems before we arrive at each race, we've been finding problems during the last two races. "We had the electrical problems at Maraetai, and then fixed
those only to discover there was steering issues at Gulf Harbour,
both of which stopped us from challenging for class honours." |
Red Bellies Racing in action on Gulf Harbour
Red Bellies Racing - ready to hit the road |
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Despite the recent frustrations, Sanders remains upbeat about the team's form and confident the team can feature in the end of season standings. "Up until the point of the crash at Taupo, we were running at the top of our class and within reach of the outright leaders, so we know that the pace is there," Sanders said. "It's just a matter of now hopefully having all of the problems behind us, going out there and getting back into the groove. "We're confident that things will start to turn our way this weekend, allowing us to start to move up the Superboat Light points ladder." The team's preparation for Saturday's 100-mile race is almost complete, with broken steering rams identified as the culprit at Gulf Harbour. New rams have arrived in New Zealand, and are currently awaiting clearance for customs before being fitted to the Red Bellies Racer. "We did some testing in Auckland on the day after Gulf Harbour's race and confirmed that the steering problems were a result of broken rams," Sanders said. "The parts were sent from Australia to New Zealand and have arrived in New Zealand. "It will be a little bit touch and go, but we're confident it will be cleared from customs in time to fit to the boat. "Everything else is ready to drive down to Wellington and look forward to a better race." The race on Evans Bay starts at 2:15pm local time. 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. When not racing offshore powerboats, Bruce Sanders heads the Sanders Group, based in New South Wales' Nelson Bay, which owns and manages several hotels and motels in the region, including the Seabreeze Hotel. In 2006, Seabreeze Hotel was awarded 'Hotel of the Year', by the Australian Independent Liquor Group, in recognition of the hotel's high quality management, facilities and services. |
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