As you may or may not know the Tigers were on tour last week, heading off to Stewartby for a well earned rest, oh and to do some racing of course!

A great weekend was had by all, its just a shame the wind was too bad on Sunday for any racing to take place.

But the highlight of the weekend has to be Saturday nights Karaoke, where our very own Tony Knights was a very keen participant!

oh did i mention we filmed it? No? Well ud better watch the clips below!

Warning, may damage your ears! Yes it was dark in there! Sorry about the quality!

New driver Matt Lockwood started the evening’s racing with some good laps in his new Trombretta boat. He was caught out at the Wherry turn where he collected the buoy on his pickle. After the buoy had been replaced, a quick hydro practise session was underway and then the sports boats kicked off a good night’s worth of racing. Ray Bernie in his Yamaha rig and Bob Brett in the 6 Cylinder Mercury on a Burgess Hull had a couple of laps to themselves, but the race was soon stopped when the Mercury caught fire.

Brain Block and Ray Read gave us some good racing to watch  while Alan Sabberton made the crowd turn their heads when he arrived with his Chevrolet inboard.

Nigel Whitlam had a good night’s racing while entertaining the crowd with his impressive speed and ability to come from a dreadful handicap to come through the field but unfortunately was unable to finish the race due to electrical problems. John Masters took first from Brain Block. Sabberton, Roger Watson and Tim Lewis all failed to finish. Pete Mantripp took the Monohull win from Daniel Drake.

Thirteen hydroplanes were out on the water giving the crowd some more good racing. Tony Calver was due to race but ignition problems troubled him and he withdrew from the night’s racing. Rob Haleswas chased by Mike Pacey and Jason Mantripp, Craig Speller, Team Tiger driver Tony Knights and World champion Sean Barnard made up the rest of the OSY 400 bunch before Wayne Turner, David Jones and Carl Wigg who had a 1 second advantage over new driver Matt Lockwood in a similarly powered hull. Stuart Grieve entered the race and had a good night of racing with Peter Rix beginning the race from the back of the field. Mike Pacey took the overall win from Carl Wigg and Team Tiger’s Tony Knights. Stuart Grieve had a good night of racing finished fourth from Wayne Turner and Peter Rix.

Five juniors battled over the short course with George Perks won heat one from James Bowman and Kieran Rix in third. Team Tiger Craig Jude was fourth above Jamie Block. After the first heat, handicap times were adjusted and this created a complete change in fortunes. Kieran Rix took the win from Jamie Block and Craig Jude. James Bowman started from the back of the pack to finish fourth and George Perks, after winning the first heat, finished in last place. James Bowman and George Perks were disqualified for starting early and Kieran Rix and Jamie Block were penalised a lap. Team Tiger driver Craig Jude was the only driver to start on time and he finished first. Craig finished second overall behind Kieran Rix and in front of Jamie Block.

Bad weather conditions caused the Bank Holiday racing programme to be cancelled. There will be no racing Thursday either but there will be racing on the following Thursday. Some good weather conditions should ensure that we get some good racing.

Some good racing seen again on the water at Oulton Broad this week. A brief practise session for the hydroplanes got the programme underway, and then the Juniors kicked off some good racing. Craig Jude and Jamie Block got the racing underway with a lap head start with James Bowman and the rest of the drivers following. Team Tiger driver Luke Cleveland was not racing this week but is looking forward to racing on Monday. Jamie Block finished the heat in first position with Team Tiger driver Craig Jude in second. George Perks was third and James Bowman fourth. Overall, the Juniors finished as Jamie Block winning the evening with Kieran Rix following 138 points behind. Team Tiger Craig Jude was in third and James Bowman and George Perks rounded off the field.

Eight catamarans, three heats, nine laps on a two thirds of a mile course, sounds exciting doesn’t it. There was some exciting racing and Nigel Whitlam made a turnout on a warm evening too. Alan Sabberton was also out on the curcuit but his night was cut short when he experienced some fuel supply problems to his engine and he was forced to retire to the pits. Nigel Whitlam meanwhile was on fire on a nice night of racing. Speeding past everybody like a bullet from a gun. Team Tiger driver Tim Lewis was going well finishing third behind Nigel Whitlam and Ray Read. Alan Sabberton didn’t have much luck trying to fix his fuel consumption problems and returned to the pits in the second heat. Robin Day and Nigel Whitlam finished a joint second with Ray Read in first and Team Tiger Tim Lewis following closely behind.

Monohulls saw some exciting racing too with a good scrap between Pete Mantripp and Daniel Drake. In the first heat, Daniel Drake took the win from Pete Mantripp with Adam Shearing in third. David Brett was in fourth but had some engine problems in heats two and three. Daniel Drake started early in the second heat and then had engine problems in the third which gave Mantripp a lead from him. Adam Shearing came home in second with David Brett in third and Daniel Drake following shortly behind.

The hydroplanes put on a magnificent show with Keith McVaigh in his bright orange Konny powered Ringwood. Stuart Grieve had a good night of racing, finishing the whole night third overall. Mike Pacey was out in his Mr Fahernheit kneeler with Craig Speller, Julian Codling, Stephen Smith and Robert Hales also out on the water for a good night of racing. David Jones had probleam in the first two heats but managed to successfully complete the third heat. Wayne Turner also had a bad night of racing failing to finish in his 125. Craig Speller finished the third heat spectaculary from Mike Pacey to ensured he took home the wonderful Daily Mirror Individual Handicap Trophy. Pacey finished runner up with Stuart ‘Never Give Up’ Grieve in third after many weeks of perseverance with his boat. 

Next race meeting is on Bank Holiday Monday when racing start at noon.

Second club meeting of the season and the weather was not as good as the Nationals. On a cold night, the classes were down on numbers slightly. Juniors were down to five racers because alot of them were preparing their boats for the Carr Mill national which is taking place this weekend.

Rescue boats were kept busy on the water with some incidents on the second club meeting of the season but despite a lot of re-runs, we got another full race programme completed.

Team Tiger driver Craig Jude had another good night of racing. Craig finished in first place with Kieran Rix following closely behind. George Perks, James Bowman and Jamie Block have rounded out the field. After the beginning of the race, the racing was tight but Craig Jude won two of the three heats and he finished second behind Kieran Rix who had to start a lap behind.

 Hyrdoplanes were first on the water but with the absence of regular like Team Tiger driver Tony Knights, Craig Speller and Danny Woods, there was not many to compete in this heat either. Mike Pacey was out in his Mr Fahrenheit kneeler for the first time this season, and managed to achieve second behind Peter Rix. Julian Codling finished third with Dave Jones,Geoff Lowther, and Rob Hales. Sam Perks was trying out his 500 cc Konig powered Danisch classic of Peter Rix and Janne Sawfe. After Sam Parks had been badly handicapped, he started the race 2 minutes early and resulted with him being disqualified but he finished the race in good fashion. In heat two he was progressing nicely and then his craft got holed on the back straight and his boat began sinking. This caused the race to be stopped but was soon re-run.

The sportsboats had more Monohulls than Catamaran’s on Thursday night, but this didn’t stop there being some good racing between both catergories. Jonathon Lewis was out in his monohulls again on the rough night of racing and finished first overall. As always, there was some close and exciting racing between Pete Mantripp and Daniel Drake. Pete Mantripp finished the night in second with Daniel Drake following closely behind. Jonathon Brett was having a good night of racing before his boat decided to roll at the Wherry buoy turn. This resulted in him being a non starter in the final heat of the night. This caused the race to be stopped but was underway again quickly. Adam Shearing was in fourth and new driver Ray Birnie was in fifth.

Two catamarans started the night of racing. Scott Curtis and Tim Lewis both had a good night of racing. Scott won all three heats with Tim Lewis closely behind. Roger Watson, Robin Day and Brian Block were all non starter’s on this rough Thursday night.

Racing continues on Thursday night at 6 p.m

What perfect weather for racing. Some intense racing, fast racers abd some incident packed racing. There were plenty of spectators to witness some of the best racing that Oulton Broad has seen so far this season.

Rookie Tom Gilderdale from the Lancashire club held off some of the more experienced drivers like Bill Owen and Mark Williams and he went away from the weekend with a maximum of 1200 points. Top LOBMBC driver was Daniel Drake who finished the weekend on 908 points with Pete Mantripp shortly following on 764 points.

Defending champion and Team Tiger driver Tony Knights took the whole field by storm over the weekend with three wins out of three. Behind Tony though, there was a fierce battle between Mike Pacey who had initally led race one before he spun out and Craig Speller collided and also stopped. While Mike was excluded from that race, Danny Wood had to take the second position place next to Tony Knights. At the last heat, vcitory was guaranteed for Tony Knights but with engine problems on the starting line, this gave Craig Speller a chance to collect all 400 points for the win followed by Jason Mantripp and Danny Wood.

Formula 2’s were out in numbers for this weekend’s racing. Steve Fitzsimmons was forced to retire after the timed practise session with a not so good engine. With the field down to eight after the retirement of Steve, this still meant that there was going to be some exciting racing. Lancashire driver Paul Balfour was having a good weekend of racing going back to Lancashire with 1200 points. There was some close racing throughout the weekend between Paul Balfour and Malcolm Goodman which made the crowd want to stay for some more exciting racing. Ian Smith, Andy Griffiths, John Puddifoot, Ian Wright, Stu Wilkinson and Billy Nairn were also out on the water enjoying some of the good weather conditions that Oulton Broad saw at the weekend. Billy Nairn had a eventful last race to the weekend after his boat rolled at the Wherry Buoy when himself and Ian Smith went for the same piece of water and Nairn came off worse. Overall Paul Balfour won the weekend of racing with Malcolm Goodman in second with 1080 points, Ian Wright was in third with 972 points and the rest of the field shortly following.

Juniors saw a good outcome for the weekend’s racing. 10 Juniors were competing over the weekend and this meant that there would be some good racing. Ben Morse and LOBMBC star James Bowman were both racing well on both days of the National going away from the event with first and second positions. Also LOBMBC stars were Kieran Rix and Team Tiger driver Luke Cleveland who also both had a good weekend of racing. Alex Gilbert came in third with Matt Palfreyman in fourth. Luke Cleveland was fifth with George Perks, Charlotte Gilbert, Nick Walsh and Ben Viney rounding out the field.

Julian Codling was having another good couple of days of racing finishing second behind handicapped Wayne Turner who went away from the weekend with first place. Carl Wigg also had a good weekend of racing with some small incidents and went away with third position. Also racing was Paul Jillings and Keith Whittle.

Formula 4’s saw 11 craft entered for this class but only 9 craft started as Ray Read and John Masters were having problems over the course of the weekend. Commodore Brian Shulver and Stephen Batch were joint first place with Scott Curtis in third. On Monday however, there was some good racing from everyone in this category. Brian Block finished in overal 6th and he was going well until his boat decided to take off and land with some slight damage to the boat, but this was enough to put him out of the weekend’s racing. Paul Vears and Paul Batch were 4th and 5th with Mark Williams in 7th and Stuart King and Richard Sheppard rounding off the field.

There will be no racing on Thursday due to the weekend’s racing but normal programme will continue Thursday May 15th at 6pm at Oulton Broad.

The first club meeting is always a nightmare for the organisers because of the early fading light which means there is less time on the water, but thanks to the cooperation of all the people who are involved with the club, the evening ran smoothly. All sports classes had 6 laps instead of the usual 9.

With both monohulls and catamarans on the water at the same time although Roger Watson who didn’t make it to the start and Nigel Whitlam in the Formula 1 who had to retire from first race problems. Robin Day was having a good night of racing but it was Ray Read who won the first heat from Scott Curtis and Team Tiger driver Tim Lewis. Ian Smith won the second race from Robin Day and Scott Curtis and in the final heat Ian Smith won for the second heat over Ray Read with Scott Curtis taking third overall.

The monohull saw 4 drivers racing in the night’s racing. The heats saw Pete Mantripp race to wins in the opening and final races with new driver Adam Shearing winning the second. Daniel Drake finished in second overall throughout the whole night finishing with 1080 points. Bob Brett had a drive in the Brett brother’s craft.

The first race of the hydroplanes saw Matt Lockwood in the Banshee take the chequered flag from Tony Knights and Robert Hales. Mike Pacey had handling problems and retired to the pits. Julian Codling raced around to take fourth place from Craig Speller and Danny Wood in their new Ace hulls. Robert Hales struck some underwater obstruction near the Wherry turn and the second heat had to be restarted. Matt Lockwood also retired but Craig Speller raced to 400 points from Wayne Turner who was a non finisher in heat one, then Tony Knights and the hydrocat of Stuart Grieve. Team tiger driver Tony Knights in his British Championship winning boat came second overall with 750 points and Wayne Turner came away with third after his two second places.

The juniors were down on were down on numbers after last season with the disappearance of 6 drivers. Nevertheless the juniors were still out on the water to have some fun. Kieran Rix failed to catch Craig Jude who was having a ball in the Poll hull. Luke Cleveland took the second heat with Craig winning the last. Craig took first overall with James Bowman in second and George Perks in third. Team Tiger Luke Cleveland came home fourth overall with Kieran Rix shortly following.

There will be no racing next Thursday but there will be racing Sunday and Monday due to the Bank Holiday weekend which looks to be a good weekend of racing.

Beginning of the new season is upon us. Although it was only practise, there was some good racing. Juniors began the night with their 15 minute practise session. Craig Jude was out in his Poll craft with a new engine from last season. He completed the whole night of practise. George Perks was at the wheel of his Barracuda craft and James Bowman was out in his new Barnard craft for this season along with Luke Cleveland and Kieran Rix. There were no incidents in Thursday night’s practise session and all the boys have shown that they are ready and raring to go for next week’s racing.  

Hydroplanes were next out on the water for their 15 minutes of practising. Hydro’s have a newcomer to the circuit this year being Matt Lockwood in his new Jason Mantripp Banshee. Matt had a couple of laps to himself to get used to the boat and then the rest of the bunch joined in. Mike Pacey was in his new modified Italian boat and Tony Knights was in his championship winning Allerton built boat. Craig Speller was also in his new boat for the 2008 season and he put in some good laps all before he decided that he was going to take out with Wherry buoy. Peter Rix was really keen to try his new electronic ignition on his Konny 500 likewise was Julian Codling with his 350 Konny and both were well satisfied with the results that they got. Stuart Grieve put in some good lap times with his Fort hydrocat and Carl Wigg was preparing for the forthcoming national event on May Bank Holiday. 

In the sportsboat category there was a good mixture of 10 boats racing Thursday night. Jonathon Lewis made an appearance in the ex Rod Champkin T-850 hull and the ex Jonathon Lewis Formula 1 boat was in the safe hands of Nigel Whitlam. Pete Mantripp was the quickest in the monohulls while monohulls also had a newcomer being Adam Shearing, nephew of John Shearing who used to race in the early seventies. Stephen Batch had a new livery on his rapid Hall Race boat F4 and everyone welcomed back Team Tiger driver Tim Lewis. Robin Day had his Formula 3 running well until he span at the Wherry Buoy and done minimal damage to his boat. John Masters was making final preparations for the Rouen 24 hour race with his Tim Cat, running the last few laps of the night with his lights ablaze. 

Be prepared for a fabulous night of racing on Thursday night at 6pm when the championship starts. Enjoy!