The final round of the South African Formula One Powerboat Championship came to a dramatic end at the East Rand Speedboat Club in Benoni on Saturday. Championship leader Keagan Frankiewicz sadly barrel-rolled on the second lap of the opening heat and was transported to hospital with a back injury. With Frankiewicz out of the running for the day, it gave Bruce Repsold a chance to possibly win the sought after championship title, but it was not to be as Repsold unfortunately struck and dislodged the turn buoys at the top side of the circuit leading to a disqualification in the opening heat. With the disqualification of Repsold, Michael Wessels who was third in the championship going into the last round needed a full house of wins to move into second place behind Frankiewicz and this he did putting in a very calculated drive under massive pressure from the hard charging Repsold.

The large crowd that attended the powerboat festival on the Ebotse Dam in Rynfield were treated to some of the best racing action seen in many years as Repsold who was running a 2 litre motor tried every trick in the book to pass Wessels who has upgraded to a 2.5 litre motor on his South African built Caudwell hull. The boats of both Wessels and John-Ross Duncan were built by Caudwell Marine by Hi-Tech Automotive for on the outskirts of Gqeberha many years ago and were fitted with Nissan V6 inboard engines and were raced in the World F1 Series with little success as they kept snapping the orbital drive shafts. The boats returned to South Africa and have been shortened, had transoms fitted to now use an outboard motor and have been developed into top contending boats in the local championship. 

Michael Wessels enjoyed three out of three wins and moved ahead of Repsold to finish second in the championship behind Keagan Frankiewicz who has now won his third championship in a row. It was a fantastic end to the season for Wessels as he missed the third round of the season after having donated one of his kidneys to his mother in a life-saving operation.  Michael’s father Nico ended the day in second place overall with Repsold in third, followed by the ever-improving Dylan Moolman in fourth with John-Ross Duncan in fifth.

The powerboat festival was well supported by other classes and it is encouraging to see the growth in the junior class numbers. The classes in attendance were the Hard Bottoms, Inflatables, GT 10’s, GT 15’s and Formula 30’s.

Official results of all classes will be added shortly.