Almost up the creek

Lack of rain big drama for jet boat race meet

THERE’S one thing needed for a successful jet boat race meeting and it has nothing to do with the size of the field or the speed of the boats. Water.

And that’s something the Tweed Valley Jet Sprint Club does not have a lot of as it prepares to host the fifth round of the Australian championships this weekend at Round Mountain.

Club president Peter Monger said the acute lack of rain on the Tweed had affected the amount of water the club could collect in a holding dam next to the jet boat track.

“Our track is only about 600mm deep on average but due to the nature of the sport, a lot of water gets pumped out by the boats on each run so we have to maintain that depth throughout the two days of the race meeting,” Mr Monger said.

“Normally about 75 per cent of the water sprayed out runs back into the track but that still leaves an amount which has to be topped up.

“Usually this isn’t be a problem because of the dam. Normally the level is about 100cm from the top of the dam but currently the water level is about 2m down.

“We have had to use smaller pumps to get as much water out of the dam as possible and we have brought in an excavator to dig out the centre to try to get as much water as possible to the track.

“We have about 30 boats coming for this round of the Australian championships and I an confident we will have enough water to ensure a safe meeting.

“But it has been unbelievably dry here.

“We have spent money improving the facilities ahead of hosting the finals of the World Championships in November, including a new toilet block.

“We installed plumbing to a rainwater tank for the toilets but this weekend we had to bring water in so people can use them.

“The track backs on to cane fields and in the past we have been able to pump water from the cane drains that feed into Mooball Creek to top up our dam – but those drains are all bone dry.”

The Tweed Coast received just 61mm of rain in June and 38mm in July compared to the average of 164mm for June and 64mm for July.

The racing at Round Mountain starts today at noon with qualifying in two classes, Group A and Superboats. The action starts again tomorrow from 9am.

For more information and tickets, got to www.V8superboats.com.au

Tweed Valley Jet Sprint president Peter Monger does his best to top up the Round Mountain Raceway on the Tweed Coast ahead of this weekend's race meeting while local driver Phil Weinthal waits patiently.