11:54 PM Mon 23 Feb 2009 GMT
Scott Coker, at the wheel of the Grand Prix hydroplane 'Fair Warning', has overcome wild weather to take out the 2009 Downtown Flying Lap at Wanganui, New Zealand.
Coker raced over the 2000-metre course in 44.41 seconds to down arch-rival Warwick Lupton in 'Annihilator' (44.99 seconds) with Anthony Robinson claiming third in his F1 tunnel boat, 'Design Windows' with a time of 45.17 seconds.
The Wanganui course, on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island, about five-hours drive outside Auckland, was on a river with only about 150-metres width.
This is approximately the distance between turn buoys on a typical lake course, so it made for an extremely tight course for hydroplanes, in particular.
Seven tunnel boats and five hydroplanes were on site for the Downtown Flying Lap, but Mother Nature was anything but onside.
In fact, as one observer put it, 'she threw everything at us.'
Flood waters pushed driftwood and debris down the river on the Saturday, virtually ending any chance of action, while on the Sunday afternoon strong winds prevented further competition and organisers had to settle for the lap times registered earlier in the day.
At least they were able to choose a winner and place getters.
Good crowds packed the banks and took advantage to catch the action from a bridge over the river.
Such was the racing they all went home happy.
by Bob Wonders
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