Records tumble at Robinvale-Euston Ski Classic on Murray

Four race records have been broken among some tight finishes at this year’s Robinvale-Euston Ski Classic held on Sunday (March 13).

Competitors across 20 individual classes safely completed the 80km course along the Murray River separating NSW and Victoria.

The teams put on a great display of champagne ski racing that saw records tumble but no serious stacks among the fiercely competitive racers.

Overall honours went to Merc Force who broke a seven-year drought to claim their first win since 2009, which was coincidentally also in Robinvale, while 99 Psycho Clowns came in second and Superman third.

The first of the records to be broken came in the Unlimited Inboard class as Pigs Arsenal driven by Chris Stevens with son’s Sean and Jack on the skis, while Mark Boyer observed sliced two seconds off the previous best time to finish in 28 minutes, 22 seconds, just over 60 seconds clear of second placed Elm Street and more than 90 seconds clear of third placed Stalker.

Next up in the race records department was Merc Force F1 who broke the Women’s expert class record by 11 seconds with Chelsea Blight and Ellen Jones on the skies, Trent Souwer and Christian Apps driving and observing. Experience reigned supreme for female competitor Blight and her skiing partner, 16-year-old world champion (opening photo).

It was a bittersweet afternoon for V8 Supercar star brothers Todd (skier) and Rick (driver) Kelly, who along with their father John (observer) and fellow skier Gerard Atkins did enough to break the record in the 5.2 Litre Inboard expert class aboard Mojo.

However the Mildura locals came in second behind Monopoly who were 36 seconds quicker as Matthew Sadler (driver), Gary Sadler (observer), Sam Handley and Mitchell Mulcahy (skiers) combined for class victory.

The last of the records broken today came in the Stock 6 Litre expert class as Seriously Gro Up clocked a smooth 34 minutes, 01 second to beat the previous record by 34 seconds. Driver Alex Handley, observer Ryan Wridgway and skiers Adrian Nix and Brendon Fogarty beating home Hollow Point, who were followed by Public Enemies in third.

However, it wasn’t all about records as a number of classes logged results with the fastest boats separated by mere seconds. There was some extraordinarily tight racing across the ski-race classes.

As the waters that divide NSW and Victoria calmed, and awards were presented, attention has now turned to the Mildura 100, which commences in less than two-weeks time and will be held over the Easter long weekend. Ski Race Australia filed this report. Full race results at http://www.skiracing.com.au.