THE first powerboat event on the Broad for the 2010 season was held last Thursday with a practice night for all classes. The weather was superb for the time of year, light winds and bright sunshine, which saw a large crowd of spectators on the park and the best entry of race boats on a first meeting of the year for several seasons.

THE first powerboat event on the Broad for the 2010 season was held last Thursday with a practice night for all classes.

The weather was superb for the time of year, light winds and bright sunshine, which saw a large crowd of spectators on the park and the best entry of race boats on a first meeting of the year for several seasons.

The sportsboats had 10 very mixed rigs on the water which after a few laps was churned up with a chop making fast times difficult. The conditions however did not seem to effect Stephen Batch in his F4 who put in times of 40-41 seconds. Charlie Hales made his debut in the ex Peter Sabberton inboard and Ian Smith tried the new Hall F2 for the first time. Tim Lewis had his very short Granprix hull recently resprayed in very smart colours running well but struggled in the rough water.

The hydroplanes had a great entry of 11 boats including a good selection of the OSY class with Craig Speller and James Bowman the front runners. Julian Codling was again driving on the limit with his 250cc cabover outfit putting in very impressive laps. Kevin Turner was running his new 250cc project but had teething problems as did Wayne Turner in his 125cc racing outboard. One disappointed driver was Tony Knights who could not get back in time to test his new Allerton boat due to being caught by the flight problems while on holiday.

The juniors had four entries, the front runner being Keiron Rix in his J250 rig hoping for big things in the national event when he takes on drivers using the new JT250 wing boat outfits.

The next event is the National on May 2 and May 3 when drivers from all over the country converge on the broad for round one of the drivers championship for two days of high speed racing.

Classes competing from noon on both days will be Juniors, T850 Monohulls - where local driver Pete Mantripp starts as one of the favourites - S850 cats, which will have world champion Scott Curtis in the line up of top class outfits, and a good entry of F2 and SL250 rigs including Keith Whittle world speed record holder for the class.

The outboard racing hydros will include several of the countries top international drivers and the OSY class will have four times world champion Craig Speller out to keep the new drivers at bay.

Free entry to the park on Sunday, come and meet the drivers in the pits at Colemans Dyke before and after racing on both days and see the boats being prepared.

Brian Shulver