Jet boat racing is roaring into town – it’s the first time this hair-raising sport has been run in Victoria for 15 years, and it’s first time at Elmore.
These incredible craft, barely big enough for their two-man crews, will ricochet around the channels cut into the field days site at speeds of as much as 150km/h.
Using just 750mm of water as a racetrack.
One wrong turn means they go airborne or cartwheeling across the paddocks.
This is the prestigious Australian V8 Superboats Championship and it’s coming to Elmore as a collaboration by the field days committee and the Australian Formula Jet Sprint Association.
“Campaspe Shire’s event team introduced us to the AFJSA as they thought we might have been interested,” EFD executive manager Derek Shotton said.
And they were.
“We met with the AFJSA some time ago, went through what was needed and what was required, and did quite a few site visits of other jet boat tracks around Australia,” he said.
“After that due diligence the committee decided it was something they were interested in, and we formally started talking about how the agreement would work and what it would look like.
“We started construction almost 12 months ago, so it has been a pretty quick turnaround.”
EFD owns the project, though Shotton was quick to thank a few sponsors in the region for their “pretty generous” contributions.
The track looks a bit like a go-kart circuit on water – racers completing turn after turn at speed.
But unlike the fun on four wheels, jet boat racing wouldn’t make a great idea for a kids’ birthday party.
“Oh, it’s a lot faster than go-karting, a lot faster,” Shotton said.
“It’s one of the fastest short course water events you’ll see in the world.
“They'll hit 140km/h, 150km/h on parts of the track, and given the water's only 750mm deep, it's not something for the faint-hearted and not something for someone without a fairly high skill level.”
The water filling in the track can also be sustainability reused afterwards, key to making Elmore the region’s jet boat racing hub.
The Field Days team seized the opportunity to bring the sport back to the state, the hunger to return among racing radicals clearly being satisfied.
“There's been an incredible groundswell of support from the Victorian racing fraternity; they're just so happy they've got two races of the Australian championships back in the state,” Shotton said.
It has also seen a few teams resurrected as well.
“There are Victorian entities which left the sport, because there was no home ground, and they are now getting involved again.”
Another part of the attraction to secure the event was the “very strong boating and motor sport fraternity” between Bendigo, Echuca and Shepparton.
Shotton confirmed teams competing had strong links to the Southern 80 — two such groups even building a boat for the coming meet.
The interest in the racing will be matched on the viewing banks.
The number of tickets being snapped up has already led the EFD team to put plans in motion to expand the banks for March.
Another meet will take place then, running alongside the Elmore Tractor Pull.
The day is being dubbed Elmore Full Noise — which is what’s expected on the water and along the banks this Saturday.
20°C