PERFECT conditions and a dream run helped the Superman crew achieve a race record as the boat won the 2022 River Classic Robinvale Euston 80.
The four-person crew, led by boat owner Darren McGuire, broke the previous race record, set by Merc Force in 2018, by four seconds in an unexpectedly calm afternoon of racing on Sunday.
McGuire said his crew, who have raced together for 14 years, had not been able to break the Robinvale Euston 80 record because conditions did not usually favour quick afternoon times.
“Because Superman is such a big boat, as the wind picks up after midday … it blows it from one side of the river to the other and when you’re going 200km per hour, it’s a bit sketchy,” McGuire said.
The Robinvale Euston 80, which attracted about 1000 spectators over the weekend, began on Saturday with a Top 40 Dash for experts to gain seeding for Sunday, and hosted the Junior Dash, for Under-16s, and social and veterans’ classes.
Superman was one of 121 boats racing in the Expert class on Sunday, when crews raced from Robinvale Riverside Caravan Park northward on the Murray River during the morning, before completing a return 40km leg to Robinvale in the afternoon.
“We’ve always got to the halfway point well under the record,” McGuire said. “(But) normally on the way home, it’s been wind and rain and being attacked by birds and everything,” he said.
McGuire said the crew knew they were well-placed heading into the return leg, and decided to risk an almost-certain win by going for the record.
“We had a little bit of a chat on the way home and I said, ‘do you want the win or do you want the record’, and the boys said ‘Go for it’ so we lit it up.”
“There was no wildlife, the water was good,” he said. “We just have never been able to get that on the way home.”
Superman featured McGuire and Steven Robertson along with skiers Daniel Graziano and Daniel Cotton and finished the afternoon leg six seconds faster than the afternoon record, finishing with an overall record time of 26:17.015.
McGuire said the “flow-on” course at the Robinvale Euston 80 was ideal for a powerful boat such as Superman, but he said other crews were “up there” jostling for the best times.
Sapphire finished second, 30 seconds off the former race record time, while Brimstone Racing finished third.
“My boat is just made to go fast and on those big, long straights and big sweepers this boat is so powerful,” McGuire said.
“You’re not forever doing tight corners so you get to light the boat up … and once we get up there, we can stay up there.”
The Mildura boat Hedake won the Junior Dash on Saturday as driver Nathan Hedley repeated his 2020 victory with the boat, this time racing with observer Emma Barnes, and skiers Senna Hedley and Kyle Hockey.
Crews will now prepare for the Mildura 100 Classic at Easter before the final race in the King of the Murray title, the Southern 80, which will be in Echuca in May.
