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Big Tee Racing - Race Reports
OMRA TORQUAY I 2010
As usual, an early start saw the racers gather
quayside at Torquay with what looked to be a relatively calm start
to the day. However, as is often the case at Torquay at this time of
the year, it didn't stay that way.
Tony had come down the day before with Hannah, his
daughter, and had arrived at the Hotel only for the power steering
pump on his van to pack up. This meant a frantic morning on
the dockside waiting for the RAC man to arrive and Tony and another
racer stripped the front off the van to aid repair.
To add to the complications, Tony had been ill a few
days before and now Hannah was beginning to feel the effects and was
looking decidedly green around the gills. Clearly Tony's focus was
on other more important matter that day and he elected to beat a
hasty retreat home early on after only having had a brief test run
with the Pacer 60/CMB 26 early on in the morning.
He had hopes to run his twin-engined Cat, but the
wind had picked up in short order after the drivers briefing and the
wave height precluded this. As Tony was only testing the Pacer prior
to the championship proper and may have run his Pacer 70 later in
the day, after a stoppage by Thatcher Rock he decided to draw a halt
to the test and return to the dockside. Tony left not long after
this with a very poorly Hannah.
 This
left Team honours resting with Phil and Cam. By the time Cam's run
came round in the afternoon, the wind had picked up to a Force 5-6
and being easterly, had set up a very nasty chop across Torbay which
even the rescue boats were finding uncomfortable.
 Cam
set off with the Pacer 60 at a sedate pace, but was having
difficulty seeing past the Chase Boat driver and
was also finding the conditions were chucking him about. He drove
the first leg very steadily nonetheless and had passed the hotel and
was approaching Thatcher Rock when the boat stopped. Clearly
it had taken on quite a bit of water and the Bernoulli bailers were
not man enough to keep up with the influx of seawater.
Despite numerous efforts in getting the engine going
again by Phil, it was a dead loss and so after only covering half
the course, the towel was thrown in. A very lumpy and uncomfortable
15 minute ride back to harbour was then undertaken, and the
consensus was that due to the steadily worsening conditions, Phil
was going to forego his attempt as it would have been much the same
result.
As it turned out, out of 12 D Class entries, only 1
managed to set a time, and this was a very lengthy 38 minutes!!!
The usual time for this course being around 9-11 mins for a D boat.
A rather ignominious start to the saltwater events
but one which has made the team look at the development of the Pacer
70 as a priority, and to this end, Phil will be working on prepping
his 70 ready for Calshot next month.
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