New record for longest ski race in Australia

The race record for the longest ski race in Australia, the Hawkesbury 120 in Windsor, was smashed on Sunday (

Owner/driver Darren McGuire, observer Brett Armstrong and star skiers Daniel Graziano and Daniel Cotton put together a time of 40mins 13.13 seconds to defeat Merc Force (41:44.08) and local crew Stinga 21S (43:08.06).

The same Superman team narrowly missed the former race record of 41:08.78 last year, falling less than a second short, but after a campaign that saw Graziano win the bronze medal in the F1 class at this year’s world championships, they would not be denied this time around.

Superman was 44 seconds ahead of Merc Force on the opening leg from Windsor to Wisemans Ferry and a further 47secs on the return leg from Wisemans Ferry to Windsor.

McGuire and Graziano have been involved in all of Superman’s five victories in the race and the skiers were over the moon, revealing McGuire had been working on the boat all week.

"I love the race, I love racing on the Hawkesbury and it’s great to win five of them," Graziano said.

"Darren spends a lot of time to get the boat right and he’s been having a lot of dramas changing the set up during the week.

"He ended up having to put everything back to what it used to be because we were having a few problems. On Friday night he was still working on it and he has put a lot of time into it behind the scenes to get it ready. Without him we couldn’t race."

Cotton said the team had the race record in their sights after missing it by a sliver last year.

"We were so close to getting it last year so we sort of knew what we had to do to get it (and) it was just a matter whether we could do it on the day and luckily the fitness was just good enough."

Despite the huge margin, Merc Force owner/driver Don Gulley was typically gracious in defeat, paying tribute to the Superman team while praising his own crew that includes veteran observer Kevin Boylan and rising ski stars Kris Knights and Jake Tegart.

"It’s our first run of the season and we’re real happy. It was a good solid run, I’m very pleased with it. It went to plan."

Held last Saturday (September 9, 2017), the lead-up Sackville Invitational race winner Temper 2, with the team of skiers Jack Coaldrake and Lachlan Nix, observer Ben Hackett and Rhett Davis (driver), easily won the under-19 boy’s division (45:54.71) on their way to fifth overall.

TR comfortably won the veterans over 40 class in the single leg from Sackville to Windsor in an unofficial race record of 10:15.37.  The crew of Ian Tricker at the wheel, Nathan Miller observing and skiers Jamie Oliver and Daniel Campbell smashed the rest of the field to beat Primevil and Long Gone by well over a minute.

Other winners in other categories included, Tru Blue, who waged a great battle with Tempered in the unlimited inboard event, Mental (U/L naturally aspirated), Nothin But (u6L naturally aspirated), WaterSports Marine (unlimited outboard), Impulsive (Moc) and Team Criminal (Smoc).

Team 26 claimed the women’s open race, Mistress F2 (formula 2), The Player (u16 boy’s), Triple 666 (u19 girl’s), Stinga (u16 girl’s), No Fear (u200HP), Heaven Sent F2 (u13 boy’s), Flaamin (u13 girl’s), Kids Stuff (u13 Lite boy’s) and Run Again (60mph expert).

The Ski Racing Australia river classics season resumes on the October long weekend for the Grafton Bridge to Bridge.

More at
Ski Racing Australia.