Peter Caughey has won the superboat class at this year’s UIM World Jetsprint Championship, by taking first place at the final in Australia over the weekend.

The win is Caughey’s sixth world title – his fourth world superboat title – and the second for his navigator, Karen Marshall. But Caughey says the highlight of his win was returning to the launch area in his TOTAL boat to be greeted by a guard of honour – a band of Kiwis fringing the shore, waving New Zealand and silver fern flags.

“We were very proud to take the Kiwi flag around the track instead of the more usual chequered one,” Caughey says. This was not an easy win, he says. Poor weather and rain were offset by an enthusiastic crowd – with Caughey’s TOTAL and Eaton memorabilia in hot demand today.

But the drivers found the course rotation hard to memorise, with one corner still giving many boats trouble.Caughey wins World Superboat Crown

“Corner four was the tricky one,” Caughey said, “And I don’t think I’ve perfected it yet – but we mastered it enough to get the fastest time today.”

Caughey was shadowed by Australian V8 supercar veteran Nathan Pretty all day. He sat just half a second behind for each elimination round.

But his fastest time was in the top-12 eliminator. Running in the top six his motor began to misfire, and he was out of the competition with fourth.

Aussie Dean Finch in the twin turbo boat came second, and expat Kiwi Daryll Hutton third – both crashing out of the final round. “That meant we had the luxury of cruising if we wanted to, but it was a good opportunity to push harder than we might otherwise have risked,” Caughey said, “and we put in our fastest time.” Meanwhile the new Group A world champion, Australian Slade Stanley, blew his motor on the finish line and couldn’t do his victory lap.

Stand-outs for the day?

“Second equal in Group A was Brooke Dixon, the first woman on the UIM winner’s podium for the overall result – a fantastic effort,” Caughey says. “But you have to feel for Duncan Wilson. The Wanganui flyer was on his best run of the champs, but he drifted wide just before the finish, hit a bank and didn’t cross the line. He was lucky – it could have been a huge crash. He’ll be a driver to watch in future.”

“But the heroes for me were my team,” Caughey said. “Karen stepped up to the plate to navigate such a tricky track, and the whole team worked fantastically well, with Dave McCalum and Clark Marshall working their bums off to keep tuning the boat as racing progressed.”

“It’s been hard work, but it’s paid off with my own Sprintec boats featuring strongly in the results – and with another world championship for the trophy cabinet.”

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