A blessing was cast over us as we had another beautiful day weather for the last Circuit race of the 2009. Having been to the British Records weekend at Burton ,where the lake was unfortunatley weeded over, I had to set my boat back to a racing setup. That meant putting head shims back in the engine, getting my lower nitro fuel out of the garage and changing the angles on the boat.

I won the first race but the boat would not get on pipe after i throttled. I then remembered i had not pulled the exhaust pipe out from last weekend! Second i was leading when my cowl came loose and flew off, thats OK i thought, until i saw the fuel tank starting to lift and then the boat took a dive at the end of the back straight. Luckily the rescue crew managed to recover my tank whilst it was still floating, cheers guys! So some repairs for lunch.

Phill had been nagging me all year if he could have a go of my Hydro so lunch time came and this was to be his chance. With the tank taped back in using what i thought was stronger tape (turned out it wasn't), a quick briefing for Phill and a quick systems check, i started and launched the boat. He was going around cautiously but nicely, using the throttle very carefully for a couple of laps gradually increasing his speed until... the tank started to lift. Phill cut the throttle and abandoned his run. After a quick fix, the tank was now extremely secure and not going anywhere, phill then went and hit bouy 3. Nice one mate! OK, third and final run went brilliantly. He drove well and completed a good 10 laps and brought the boat back to the pits, amazing!

So after lunch I now had the tank secure but no protection for the carburettor and, you guessed it, the inevitable happened. Paul, driving very cleverly having observed my lack of protection, cut from the inside line to the outside forcing me to hang back or be smacked in to the pits and then, whilst catching him into the first corner I got a washed down in his rooster and the engine died!

Last race, with a lightweight cowl properly taped on the front, i comfortably got the start and just controlled the race to the chequered flag.

STOP PRESS... I have now taken collection of my new Eagle SGX-2 which will be built over the winter months in readiness for Hungary next year. AND... Phill will be buying my current model... Yeah another 15cc Hydro racer... whoop, whoop!