Off the back of two rounds at Cabarita on the north coast of New South Wales where we saw four back-to-back winners, you could be forgiven for thinking that the V8 Superboat Championship points leaders were set to whitewash the whole season, but if there’s one thing we love about the sport, it’s that it’s never that easy, and that teams are always prepared to push just that little bit more, which is what we saw on the sport’s return to Keith.
For father-and-son duo Phonsy and Bastian Mullan, they continued their winning streak, whilst in 400-Class, runaway points leader Jody Ely faced stiff opposition from a driver who was always an outside chance for a podium, but not expected to challenge for the win, but not only did Brendan Doyle claim his first ever victory in V8 Superboats, he did it with relative ease, claiming the final over Ely by more than 1.1-seconds..
Sadly for reigning Champion Justin Roylance, he again suffered a big off, this time early in the day, and unlike his rollover at Cabarita last time out, this incident at a tricky junction of the rotation, has likely seen the end of the once dominant ‘Jetspeed’ hull, and could well force the ‘Outlaw’ team into a sabbatical for the coming rounds.
There was some celebration for the Roylance team however, Justin and Bree Roylance’s 15-year old daughter Eliza claiming the top step of the podium on her debut in the Junior Development category after fellow rookie Connor Smith made a navigational error in the final, whilst points leader Koby Bourke fell victim to the Australian airlines, the reigning champion unable to get a flight to South Australia in time for the event.
Fortunately the weather held for the Keith round, although a number of teams were forced to skirt floodwater throughout country New South Wales, an issue which may well have an impact on the forthcoming races in the water-logged Riverina.
Unlimited Superboat
Keith saw just five Unlimited boats entered for the round after the late withdrawal of Tyler Finch, the ‘Loose Cannon’ team still waiting on vital jet unit parts after their pre-season test saw the boat sink to the bottom of the Murray River, whilst former Champion Scott Krause was absent to attend the Bathurst 1000 which unlike the V8 Superboats was suffering torrential rain.
Not surprisingly, it was Phonsy Mullan who led the way, the focus for this round being the 2018 World Series benchmark time of 49.247 set by multiple World Champion Peter Caughey as he claimed victory in the opening leg of the two-round Series, defeating Mullan in the final, the rotation for this round matching that of the October 2018 event.
Keen to make amends for that loss, Mullan was intent on bettering Caughey’s mark, and he ultimately did so by the third qualifier, improving the mark to a 48.725.
For former Champion Daryl Hutton, he was again back in Slade Stanley’s Championship winning ‘Hazardous’ machine whilst also waiting for parts to arrive to repair his ‘Phoenix Lubricants’ boat, Hutton going almost five seconds faster than his World Series best to be second, closing the margin to Mullan in the fourth and final qualifier to just a tenth of a second, before Mullan again improved his pace into the finals.
Behind them Rob Coley was doing his best to hang onto their tails, a 51.004 in the third qualifier his best, before struggling again with rotation, something which ultimately cost him a run at the final three after going the wrong way in the Top 6.
Chris Edmonds was back in ‘Non-Hazardous’, the second of the Slade Stanley built ‘Stingers’, Edmonds keen to dial in the supercharged-LSX powered machine, but after retiring it early – thanks to the capacity of the fuel tank which saw the boat stop on track at roughly the same point twice during his qualifiers – he stepped into his other boat, and became ‘B’ driver of ‘Hazardous’, a situation which really opened his eyes..
“Slade’s LSX is a quick boat, but from the first lap in ‘Hazardous’ I can see just how special a package it is,” Edmonds admitted. “It just does everything you want it to do, it’s a very special boat.”
Despite the pace of his flagship machine, Edmonds ran a string of wrong-ways before making a last-second error in the Top 6 to card a 71.7-second lap, a time that would not see him progress into the final three.
That left Mullan, Hutton and Glenn ‘Spider’ Roberts, now with Mick Carroll’s former navigator Daniel Kelly alongside, to progress into the final three, Roberts making amends for a couple of early offs as he dialled in some changes to the steering, to be quicker than Edmonds best qualifier and ultimately make his second final of the season.
In the end though it was all Mullan, the reigning champion overcoming neck pain and a plan to take a conservative approach to the final to card his best of the day, a 48.374 to reset the benchmark for the sport on that rotation, in the process improving his 2018 World Series time by 2.4-seconds.
Daryl Hutton ultimately settled for second, the expat New Zealander turning in his third consecutive 50.5-second lap to show he was at the limit of what he was prepared to push, but excited to adapt what he’d learnt in his time in the Edmonds-owned boat into his own machine for the next round of the season.
And for Glenn Roberts, his second podium finish of the year elevates him back up the championship order to be within reach of his goal of making the Championship podium at season’s end, a rub against the bank mid run though slowing his progress after ingesting grass into the jet unit, although he still managed to record a lap, albeit a 74.533.
“It was good running that track direction,” Mullan admitted. “We knew what Peter Caughey had run [in the 2018 World Series], we knew what the splits were so we knew what we needed to do. We had 14-15 kilograms over what weight we’d run at a World Title, so I was going to be happy to match or slightly beat Caughey’s time – that was a quick time, he was the only person in the 49s – I was in the 50s, so I was happy to have something to chase and better that mark and break into the low 48s.”
400-CLASS (GROUP A)
Keith saw the return of former competitors Hugh Gilchrist and Andrew Medlicott to spice up the competition, Gilchrist finally making his debut in his ‘new’ ‘MATTRIX’ package, whilst Medlicott was back in ‘Gone Nutz’ although it was his older fibreglass hull this time around, having sold his ex-Roylance ‘Stingray’ which is now campaigned by Darren Pollard in LS-Class.
Up front though, the fight for outright victory was likely to be a four-boat race with points leader Jody Ely facing stiff competition from reigning champion Justin Roylance, former champion Paul Kelly and emerging star Brendan Doyle, but despite some impressive laps from both Roylance and Kelly, they were both eliminated by the third qualifier.
Roylance admitted to being out of sorts from opening practice, but despite that, and with oldest daughter Macie in the navigator’s seat, he carded a 56.023 in the opening qualifier, but with Michelle Hodge back in the second seat for Q2, it all went wrong..
The 2018 World Series rotation featured a tricky fast change of direction around the middle of the circuit heading back towards the pits, a kink which taken wrong, could have pretty serious consequences, so as Roylance tipped into the corner, well before the apex, he grabbed too much bank which threw him sideways and offline directly across the channel into an island where the boat flipped and inverted itself hard upside down onto the grass. Fortunately both driver and navigator were okay, although visibly shaken, but for the ‘Jetspeed’ hull, it could well be the last time we see it in ‘Outlaw’ colours, as it took a pretty big hit.
“I dunno, the boat felt really good then,” Roylance admitted. “I didn’t really make any changes, we were sort of coming to it and I’ve obviously just clipped the bank and turned in too early.”
For Kelly, a two-time winner at Keith, he was fired up and turning in some impressive laps, in fact he was fastest in Q2, but at the end of the run a methanol fire developed in the back of the boat, Kelly quickly shutting down the engine, but not before it had fried some of the electricals in the back of the boat.
“We’ve been running without cylinder eight all weekend under load,” Kelly explained. “We’ve been chasing that all day and discovered a coil lead was the issue and fixed that ahead of the final run, but then other issues developed, so it just wasn’t our day. It was a pretty big fire, and it’s done a fair amount of damage, it’s just a shame I couldn’t put down a good time for the day.”
With Roylance and Kelly gone, it looked to many like it would be a cake-walk for points leader Jody Ely, but Brendan Doyle had other ideas.. Without Daniel James or Tremayne Jukes in his corner for the weekend, Doyle just focused on what he needed to do and was flawless for much of the weekend, a water leak aside – which forced him to be towed back to the pits early in qualifying – his 55.048 in the final qualifier an indication he was going to be an outright contender.
With Darrin Kesper out early after the engine gave low oil pressure readings (which was since found to be a technical issue and not mechanical), and Hugh Gilchrist struggling to perfect the challenging rotation, just Andrew Medlicott and Danny Knappick were able to progress to the finals alongside Ely and Doyle, Medlicott though eliminated in the Top 6 despite his best run of the day.
And that left the final, and in shades of fellow ‘PULSE’ driver Phonsy Mullan, Brendan Doyle – by virtue of his 54.3 in the Top 6 – led the field away, and from the outset you could see he was pushing hard with the prospect of claiming his maiden V8 Superboats victory.
His split time was his best of the day, a 20.944, just over a second slower than Unlimited driver Daryl Hutton, whilst his lap time – 53.552 was stunning, a time that would have put him second in 400-Class for the 2018 World Series round.. More interesting still was his admission that he hadn’t made the best start, and felt he’d lost 6-8 tenths in the first sector..!
Danny Knappick was out next, and whilst not expected to challenge Doyle and Ely, he set his best time of the day, carding a 59.397, leaving just Ely to run.
The experienced Victorian had it all ahead of him, and whilst many expected him to find that extra time to take the fight to Doyle, his 54.680 showed he had little left, in fact his last three laps were separated by just four tenths of a second, leaving Doyle to claim his maiden victory by a staggering 1.128 seconds..
“The exciting part is that boat has a heap more too,” Doyle admitted afterwards. “I reckon that would have been about an 80% throttle trace that lap. We cavitated a few times, so we’re excited with what’s to come with this beast.”
One thing is for sure, the 400-Class title battle has another outright contender, putting the title favourites on notice..
“I knew he was coming,” Jody Ely lamented. “I just didn’t think it was this quick..!”
LS-CLASS
Coming off back-to-back wins to open his 2022 title defence, the big question at Keith was whether anyone could stop teenage sensation Bastian Mullan from completing the trifecta.
With Daniel Salter back in action at the very circuit where he pushed Mullan to close out the 2021 season, Kyle Elphinstone finding form in the ‘Blackout Racing’ machine and local hero Matt Malthouse looking for redemption after the Series’ last visit to South Australia, there was every chance there could be a change in the Championship order..
With a season-high 17 entries – many of whom had never seen Spitwater Arena in the past – there was always going to be plenty of action on track.
It started almost immediately, Daniel Salter firing the first shot to take the fastest time in the opening qualifier whilst Mullan fell mere hundredths short, but by Q2 it was Elphinstone on top, the former champion stretching his advantage in the third round, before Bastian Mullan put in a flyer in Q4 to be classified P1 with a 53.809, Elphinstone P2 (54.292) and Salter third (54.433).
With so many entries, there was always going to be a number of drivers eliminated ahead of the Top 12 final; Rodney Norton, Jade Atchison, Lawrie Howlett, Ron O’Day and the returning Rob Johnston forced to retire early, Howlett and O’Day lamenting a string of navigational errors.
Sadly for Lance Edmonds – who had qualified inside the Top 12 – he never had a chance to progress after the team discovered a split in the jet unit and were forced to retire ahead of the opening elimination round. For Noel Verning – one of the rookies enjoying his first run at Keith – he suffered a DNF whilst on track to improve his qualifying best, whilst for Luke Walters, who impressed with his qualifying efforts, a late navigational error saw him miss the cut.
For Paul Hill, he was looking to work his way into the final six, but a late navigational error saw him well outside the cut, whilst Mitch Curtis found more improvement again to card a 62.02 to be classified eighth. For Mike Hessell, famous for his big off at Keith last time around, he was rewarded with a strong run through the finals to record an impressive 60.096, just two seconds shy of an entry into the final six, Tyler O’Day sealing the final slot with a 58.030.
Having worked himself into the 54s as second fastest into the second elimination final, Matt Malthouse was looking good for an assault on the top step of the podium, but just as Justin Roylance had done in the early qualifiers, the local driver clipped the inside bank as he negotiated the tight right-hand corner, forcing him wide and offline to correct it, ultimately riding the island into retirement.
In the end it was Bastian Mullan who set the benchmark time for the Top 6, his 53.375 though just tenths faster than Kyle Elphinstone, with Daniel Salter grabbing a ticket into the final, Nate Mullan improving his best again to fall 1.4-seconds shy with Tyler O’Day also improving to claim fifth for the round.
Daniel Salter was first out in the final, the West Australian unable to improve on his best to fall just short with a 54.600. Kyle Elphinstone was next out, the former title-holder turning in a faster split time than Salter, but within sight of the line, he clipped an outside bank and spun the boat. He completed the lap, although at over 100-seconds, pushing him back to second with Bastian Mullan left to run.
Arriving at Keith with a new, untested powerplant in the ‘RIPSHIFT’ machine, the team weren’t 100% sure of how it would go, but there was little question it was up to the job, Mullan turning in another flawless lap to set a split time half a second faster than Salter on his way to victory and an outright lap time that was more than 1.8-seconds quicker than his rival.
“It was amazing, that lap just felt smooth. I was struggling all day just to get my lines down and be smooth and consistent and top three, I just pulled out a good one,” Mullan explained afterwards.
JUNIOR DEVELOPMENT
The big news in the Junior Development category was the absence of reigning Champion Koby Bourke. As regulars at the Bathurst 1000, they’d travelled down to Mount Panorama for the event, expecting to head to Keith for the Saturday and be at the Mountain for the big race on Sunday, only to find flights to Adelaide had been cancelled.
That sidelined the points leader and left Connor Smith to continue his development in the category, but for the Keith round he’d be joined by another beginner – Eliza Roylance.
The second daughter of Justin and Bree Roylance, Eliza had grown up with V8 Superboats so was keen to try her hand at driving, and after a couple of laps perfecting the rotation, she took a cautious approach to ensure she completed each lap. It may not have been blisteringly fast, but it was accurate, and with Smith making a late navigational error in the final, an error he didn’t redress, Eliza’s final lap was enough to give her victory on debut.
For the Australian V8 Superboats Championship presented by Penrite the teams prepare to return to Temora in the New south Wales Riverina for the fourth round of the season on November 5 for the first of the day/night events.
For fans of the Penrite Australian V8 Superboats Championship, they can catch all the action on 7mate and 7+ (Rnd#2 airs on Saturday, 05 November on 7mate). Updates will be posted on social media channels with respect to on air times.
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Rnd#3 2022 Australian V8 Superboats Championship presented by Penrite
Spitwater Arena, Keith, South Australia
08 October, 2022
FINAL RESULTS
TOP 3 FINAL
Unlimited Superboat
1. 23. Phonsy Mullan/Leigh Stuart (RAMJET) – 48.374
2. 28. Daryl Hutton/Mick Parry (Hazardous) – 50.525
3. 888. Glenn Roberts/Daniel Kelly (Blown Budget) – 1:14.533
400-Class (Group A)
1. 4. Brendan Doyle/Rory Doyle (PULSE) – 53.552
2. 33. Jody Ely/Jessica Webb (Rampage) – 54.680
3. 45. Danny Knappick/Darren Tickell (Tuff’n Up) – 59.397
LS-Class
1. 1A. Bastian Mullan/Tahleah James (RIPSHIFT) – 52.779
2. 26. Daniel Salter/Mitchell Hade (The Hustler) – 54.600
3 219. Kyle Elphinstone/Jacob Bellamy (Blackout Racing) – 1:40.835
Junior Development*
1. 97C. Eliza Roylance (Lil Pyscho) – 1:51.508
2. 97B. Connor Smith (Lil Pyscho) – ww
* different circuit rotation to other classes
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TOP 6 FINAL
Unlimited Superboat
1. 23. Phonsy Mullan/Leigh Stuart (RAMJET) – 49.804
2. 28. Daryl Hutton/Mick Parry (Hazardous) – 50.520
3. 888. Glenn Roberts/Daniel Kelly (Blown Budget) – 56.261
4. 44. Chris Edmonds/Jamie Maroney (Non-Hazardous) – 1:11.728
5. 111. Rob Coley/Scott Munro (Poison Ivy) – ww
400-Class (Group A)
1. 4. Brendan Doyle/Rory Doyle (PULSE) – 54.322
2. 33. Jody Ely/Jessica Webb (Rampage) – 54.875
3. 45. Danny Knappick/Darren Tickell (Tuff’n Up) – 1:01.841
4. 6. Andrew Medlicott/Jason Anderson (Gone Nutz) – 1:06.115
LS-Class
1. 1A. Bastian Mullan/Tahleah James (RIPSHIFT) – 53.375
2 219. Kyle Elphinstone/Jacob Bellamy (Blackout Racing) – 53.768
3. 26. Daniel Salter/Mitchell Hade (The Hustler) – 54.293
4. 1B. Nate Mullan/Jayden Vella (RIPSHIFT) – 55.728
5. 29B. Tyler O’Day/Xavier Jackson (Agro-Vation) – 57.215
6. 69. Matt Malthouse/Leighton Collins (Nood Nutz) – DNF
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TOP 12 FINAL
LS-Class
1 219. Kyle Elphinstone/Jacob Bellamy (Blackout Racing) – 54.343
2. 69. Matt Malthouse/Leighton Collins (Nood Nutz) – 54.455
3. 26. Daniel Salter/Mitchell Hade (The Hustler) – 55.404
4. 1A. Bastian Mullan/Tahleah James (RIPSHIFT) – 55.821
5. 1B. Nate Mullan/Jayden Vella (RIPSHIFT) – 57.570
6. 29B. Tyler O’Day/Xavier Jackson (Agro-Vation) – 58.030
7. 370. Mike Hessell/Ruairi Crilly (Borrowed Time) – 60.096
8. 248. Mitch Curtis/Georgia Aungle (Smoke & Mirror) – 62.020
9. 512. Paul Hill/Alex Singleton (Slicer) – 63.152
10. 300. Luke Walters/Juzzi Calvert (The Spartan) – ww
11. 269. Noel Verning/Nathan Garrett (Quiet Time) – DNF
12. 212. Lance Edmonds/Peter Sendy (Solid Gold) – DNS
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2022 Australian V8 Superboats Championships presented by Penrite – Series Points
Unlimited Superboat (after round three of seven)
1. Phonsy Mullan (RAMJET) – 108-points, 2. Daryl Hutton (Phoenix Lubricants) – 87, 3. Rob Coley (Poison Ivy) – 85, 4. Glenn Roberts (Blown Budget) – 84, 5. Chris Edmonds (Non-Hazardous) – 72, 6. Scott Krause (KAOS) – 61, 7. Tremayne Jukes (The Girlfriend) – 54
400-Class (Group A) (after round three of seven)
1. Jody Ely (Rampage) – 105-points, 2. Brendan Doyle (PULSE) – 99, 3. Danny Knappick (Tuff’n Up) – 88, 4. Justin Roylance (Outlaw67) – 81, 5. Paul Kelly (4Zero) – 52, 6. Daniel Warburton (Team Attitude) – 48, 6. Darrin Kesper (Let’s Boogie) – 48, 8. Greg Harriman (Apache) – 28, 9. Brett Thornton (Still Obsessed) – 24, 10. Hugh Gilchrist (Mattrix) – 0
LS-Class (after round three of seven)
1. Bastian Mullan (Ripshift) – 108-points, 2. Kyle Elphinstone (Blackout Racing) – 96, 3. Matt Malthouse (NoodNutz Racing) – 89, 4. Nate Mullan (Ripshift) – 84, 5. Paul Hill (Slicer) – 72, 5. Tyler O’Day (Agro-Vation) – 72, 7. Lawrie Howlett (Drop Bear) – 64, 8. Mike Hessell (Borrowed Time) – 58, 9. Noel Verning (Quiet Time) – 48, 10. Ron O’Day (Agro-Vation) – 34, 11. Lance Edmonds (Solid Gold) – 28, 12. Jade Atchison (Twisted) – 20, 12. Luke Walters (The Spartan) – 20, 14. Matt Riley (Toe Cutter) – 18, 15. Darren Pollard (Disturbed) – 16, 15. Jim Beaman (JB Racing) – 16, 17. Rob Johnston (Almost There) – 14
Junior Development (after round three of seven)
1. Connor Smith (Lil Psycho) – 99-points, 2. Koby Bourke (Lil Psycho) – 72, 3. Eliza Roylance (Lil Pyscho) – 36
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2022 Australian V8 Superboat Championships
Rnd#1 – Tweed Coast, NSW – 23-24 July, 2022
Rnd#2 – Tweed Coast, NSW – 27-28 August, 2022
Rnd#3 – Keith, SA – 8 October, 2022
Rnd#4 – Temora, NSW – 5 November, 2022 (Colin Parish Memorial)
Rnd#5 – Temora, NSW – 3 December, 2022
Rnd#6 – Griffith, NSW – 11 February, 2023
Rnd#7 [FINAL] – Keith, SA – 25 March, 2023
About Penrite
Founded in Melbourne in 1926 by – then – 16-year old Les Mecoles, Penrite Oil utilised high-quality lubricants from Pennsylvania [USA] base stocks, hence the name ‘Pen’ from the base stock and ‘rite’ for the right oil.
In 1979, due to ill health, Les sold the company to John and Margaret Dymond. A mechanical engineer by trade and a car enthusiast at heart, John rapidly expanded the Penrite range of products. His technical background and commitment to quality ensured that Penrite continued to produce the highest quality products becoming the market leader in Australian oil and lubricants.
90 years on from those early beginnings the Dymond family have built Penrite into one of Australia’s most prominent and recognised brands.
The iconic Australian-made and owned lubricants company has a simple philosophy: ‘the right product for the right application’.
Penrite Oil Company produces a large range of high quality products suited to the Australian conditions including the exciting 10 Tenths Racing Oils range which offers a superior package of performance and protection for both competition and high-performance engines.
For more information about the extensive range of Penrite Oils available, visit www.penriteoil.com.au
For more information on the Australian V8 Superboat Championships, please visit https://www.v8superboats.com.au
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