55
40th Anniversary of Yamaha Rollo’s Ski Classic biggest and best yet!
The 40th Anniversary edition of the Yamaha Rollo’s Marine Bridge to Bridge Water Ski Classic was the biggest and best version of the event ever. With 14 boats brought over from Australia, including the world’s best ski racing teams, the Waikato River Ski race was one for the ages.
The team of ‘Superman’ dominated the event, winning all three events they ran in, with three course records along the way. Driver, Darren McGuire, Observer Steven Robertson and skier Daniel Graziano won the Masters (Over 40’s) race on Saturday morning in a time of 20:49 for the 56km course. In the afternoon, Daniel Cotton joined the team as a 2nd skier, for the seeding event for the Main race which they bettered the previous record by 2 seconds (15:23), to be number 1 off the grid on Sunday Afternoon. They completed the perfect weekend when they secured the win in open and overall and broke the record with a time of 30:39, taking 20 seconds off the 2018 record time set by Australian boat, ‘Burnin’.
2nd in the main race was another Australian team ‘Sapphire’, towing Aiden Cuff and Lachlan Nix, who also backed up and took out the Open Class Powerboat Sprints title (without skiers on the back). 3rd place in the main race from Cambridge to Taupiri and back to Hamilton, was the NZ team of Nordic Racing towing Connor Strong and Vaughan Hyde.
Team ‘Relentless’, towing the current Junior boys world champion, Kohdi Cartledge, entered into the 1 up class for the main race and came home with an astonishing time of 38:07 which set the new record.
Team ‘Little Man’ after many years of unsuccessful attempts, finally broken the Social record. Perry Jamieson came across the line with a time of 9:14, just 3 seconds under the previous record time. Little Man added to a weekend of success when they managed to come home with a 1st in MOC and then set a new record in Formula 2 class with a time of 37:51. This was towing Kyle Taylor and Nick Taylor.
A big thanks to all the Sponsors and Volunteers that made the weekend the success it was. Bringing 14 boats from Australia was a massive drawcard and raised the bar for future events. All the Australian teams are leaving their boats in NZ and coming back for the Twin Rivers Ski Race from Ngatea to Paeroa on the 7th of December.
Photo credits – Tim McWha
