Wanganui Drivers
Palmerston North Drivers
Superboats
Pat Dillon

Pat Dillon
Driver
Steve Edmonds

Steve Edmonds
Navigator
Pat is our local enthusiast who originally set out to build a jetsprint track in Wanganui and now he has achieved it. He's a local businessman, owning and operating ASR Spraypainting, Paintworkz and Blast & Paint. He has been jetsprinting for 12 years now and has encouraged many others into the sport. Steve has been navigating for him for 5 years and is also working for him as a sandblaster and general problem solver. This team won the North Island Champs in 2000. They have supercharged the superboat and are one of only 2 Ford engines out there!!
Duncan Wilson

Duncan Wilson
Driver
Jaime-Lee Lupton

Jaime-Lee Lupton
Navigator

Duncan is a Waitotara farmer also with a passion for the sport, this season will be his fifth. His first season was a good one, gaining Rookie of the Year but not as good as his last where he came 2nd in Superboats with Chris Koubaridis navigating for him. This season he will be sporting the new 2 NZ Superboat number to show the placing he has earned. Jaimee-Lee is completely new to the sport, not having raced at all as yet, so she will be pointing the way in the new Sprintec hull. Yes, Jaimee-Lee is from the Hydroplane Lupton Clan, what does Warwick think of his daughter jumping ship to the spritely jetsprints.

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Leighton Minnell

Leighton Minnell
Driver
Kellie Minnell

Kellie Minnell
Navigator

Leighton and Kellie are relatively new recruits to the sport, completing their first season last year in Group A. They didn't have a great start to their racing, not being able to compete in their first event as Leighton had a wee accident at the Cemetery Circuit last season and was too broken and bruised to race. Leighton and Kellie are both better known for their motorbike racing (sidecars) but have decided to have a spin in the water, already moving up to Superboat with a new Sprintec hull. These guys are serious!!

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Leighton Minnell

Richard Burt
Driver
Kellie Minnell

Roger Maunder
Navigator
Richard has been racing for 10 years now starting as a navigator in 1998 and gradually moving through the classes to the top.  He is a funeral director in Palmerston North so you can understand why he has a need to escape the day job!!  Roger is his father-in-law, an engineer also in Palmerston North, who has grabbed the opportunity to tell Richard where to go!!  These two are podium finishers in the superboat class and when they are racing you just want to hold onto to your seat.  Richard might need to build another trophy cabinet after this season, he’s fined tuned this boat till it is “In Ya Face”.

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Group A
Richard Murray

Richard Murray
Driver
Kesty Manning

Kesty Manning
Navigator

Richard is a local farmer with a hay contracting business, he's the guy Pat convinced to build a track!! 2 years later he got the bug and bought a boat and it wasn't hard to persuade one of his old mates to get in beside him and point the way. Kesty is also a farming /contractor only he milks cows in the Apiti district. These guys were racing in Rickity Rocket for the past 3 years and came 4th in the North Island Champs 2006. They are remaining in the competitive Group A class but have moved to a new Stinger hull and are now the Wacky Race Team in the Mean Machine. Look out he's aiming to move up the field but there won't be any cheating from this Dick Darstedly!

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New Zealand Lights
Steve Fouhy

Steve Fouhy
Driver
Denise Wallen

Denise Wallen
Navigator

Steve is a contractor from Turakina, he got the taste for the sport after a season sponsoring Richard Burt from Palmerston North. However he decided watching couldn't be nearly as much fun as racing so he bought himself a boat. Racing in Lites class for his first season with partner Denise, who jokingly calls herself the Nanna-gator, may not have been at the top of the field but they had a hell of a good time trying. The boats called 'On the Edge' because according to Denise if you're not on the edge your wasting too much space!! So move over, they're coming out on the water again this season.

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