Manfeild, NZ Peter Caughey took the Superboat title by a single point at the Parker ENZED NZ Jetsprint Championships at Manfeild's Aquatrack today.

The plucky Woodend resident and his navigator, Ian Stevens, knew they had a tough job on their hands. They went into the final round two points down on Rodney Pohio, and with a boat which is underpowered compared to the opposition. Worse, this was a one-day event, with no practice and fewer qualifying rounds; it was straight into the action, which piled the pressure on.

Caughey said, "We were racing hard all day hoping Chris Barns would follow us to help drive a wedge between us and Pohio". Caughey and the ENZED team made it through the first two elimination rounds, then entered the final four with Ian Easton, Chris Barns and Rodney Pohio. However, Caughey's boat was the only craft at under 900 horsepower, and Easton's boasted a whopping 1150.

It was a hard ask, but Caughey and Stevens gritted their teeth, strapped themselves into the flimsy craft with its massive, 7.5 litre Chevrolet engine running on methanol, and catapulted onto the water to put in a scorching 47.07 second time. Easton's mighty boat went out with a 48.27, Pohio dispatched a competitive 47.23 ­ and Barns tipped him out of the final by one hundredth of a second.

But Caughey and the ENZED team had to win the day to take the championship outright. "Barns had to run off first in the final," an elated Caughey said, "and he did a 47.54, after touching the bank part way by trying too hard. We were aware of that time and did a 47.01 to take the event, and the New Zealand Superboat title." Even more astonishing, the ENZED boat was fastest in six of the seven runs on the day.

Caughey beat Pohio by a single point. What was it like going into such a tight round without even the opportunity to practice on the track? "We did some testing yesterday," Caughey said, "and made some good progress which helped give us that little bit of an edge we needed today. What can you say, my team put in a huge effort."

"It was a superb result, one of the best championships we've raced. It was so tight, and there's such a high caliber of competition in Superboats now. But we've been second too many times, it was time to win."

The New Zealand title sets the defending world Superboat champion up nicely for the world championship rounds in the States later in the year.

As for ENZED, it put in a big contingent of VIPs and supported the team all day. Caughey said, "The guests of Combined Industrial Services had a great day and the staff made a superb job of entertaining their guests, which added to the overall glory of the event for us. Having them there to see us win such a prestigious event was great, they gave us a standing ovation during the victory lap, so we gave them a victory donut."