Newcastle Challenge Goes Up In Smoke

The race was red flagged and ended after four completed laps.

Perfect conditions saw the race get underway without any drama, until the fifth lap when Simrad burst into flames, filling the skies with thick smoke and putting to bed any thought of an uneventful Newcastle Challenge.

Racing was fierce at the front of the field for the opening laps, with the lead between Simrad and Maritimo changing before Simrad duo Ross Willaton and Luke Durman had their million dollar vessel catch fire.

"Everything was running as usual and then, all of a sudden, we had a very loud vibration that we thought was probably a thrown propeller until the cockpit started to fill with smoke and really make things interesting," explained throttleman Willaton.

"Luke (Simrad's driver) and I quickly realised the port side had caught fire and had to act quickly, not only for our own safety but to try and save the boat," he said.

Willaton has plenty of race experience, however Durman is only in his second year of offshore racing and, luckily, the former was able to put his experience to use having dealt with onboard fires previously.

"We are well trained in these areas so we knew what we needed to do. Obviously we had some fire fighting gear on board but it took the help of the local Maritime to fully douse the fire, it burnt for a hell of a long time," said Willaton.

Rescue boats were also close by to lend a hand to the Simrad pair as they stayed aboard to save their million dollar machine and minimise damage.

"We will have to assess the damage further, but the boat and engines have had to deal with a lot of immense heat, so at this stage we just don't know the full extent of it," said Willaton.

Newcastle played host to a range of unbelievable scenes in the previous two years. Global Racing caught fire in 2005, the ACME Racing team flipped their boat at 150kmh last year, and the scenes this year complete a trifecta of mishaps for the event.

Racing was subsequently called off after Simrad burst into flames, gifting the race win to last year's Newcastle challenge winners, father-son duo Bill and Tom Barry-Cotter.

Re-starting the event would have resulted in fewer laps being completed than the initial race, and the results were consequently awarded based on race position after the last completed lap.