Sunday 28th August 2011 marked the day that Jack Houston and Ben Hackett officially let the entire U19’s field know that TSR are here and we’re going to have a crack. With official times still to be confirmed (due to timing issues at Sackville ferry), the team are confident that Team Stinga Racing have set a new race record in taking the win in this class in blistering pace. Such pace in fact, that rumour has it, only a few seconds stood between TSR and an outright podium position. This was exactly the start to the season that Greg, Boylo and the boys were looking for. Starting 28th, Greg navigated “stinga” through the busy course while Boylo made sure that Ben & Jack were safe and dealing with what was tough conditions due to the number of boats Team Stinga Racing were passing. Certainly no glass today! This set up the chance to have a huge run home with a starting position of 13 and the chance to make more passes up the wider areas of the river. During the break every team member received a rest and some fuel to ensure everyone had the energy to get home.

The run from Wisemans to Windsor is the equivalent of a V8 supercar driver having half of Bathurst in his backyard. Team Stinga Racing live, train and play out of the Sackville / Ebenezer area and as fate would have it, this would be the scene of the most unexpected event of the day. On the straight before Sackville Ferry, TSR made a move on Rumours in order to gain a clear run down Sackville Straight and as Greg reached a critical point, It became apparent that a red flag was being waved and a ferry stop was required. Greg was quoted later as saying, “I can’t even remember ever getting a ferry stop before today”. Jack & Ben dropped in, stayed in position and once the ferry was cleared, Greg got the team away again, albeit in a tight squeeze with a number of boats who had stopped for the ferry. Cheers to the Rumours crew for being such good sportsmen!

From here on, it is just another training run to Windsor and TSR may have even made up some of that lost time. The run home was unofficially 23.53 with the ferry stop, which is not very far off the outright pace at all. For a pair of guys still only not long out of juniors and more recently F2, this is a fantastic achievement. Greg and Boylo were particularly impressed with the “new two up team” noting just how well these two young men skied. It looks like Jack and Ben had the mental and physical muscle to pick up and extend the “Stinga” legacy instantly into the next generation. What an exciting season this will be. The newest TSR F21s machine performed brilliantly and I was personally informed more than once that “Stinga” had the best sounding engine note all day. PFM have really got the TSR setup where it needs to be at the start of the season. Congratulations to Greg, Kevin, Ben and Jack for an outstanding effort. Let’s keep the momentum going with a busy period coming up including world championships in two weeks, Grafton shortly after and the Sydney Bridge 2 Bridge not too far around the corner. Throw in some series races and that makes for a very busy and exciting time ahead.

Special thanks to Russell Chown for supplying these images to Murray Hackett for www.stinga.com.au to use.