MERCFORCE broke the Hawkesbury Bridge to Bridge ski race record at the weekend, winning the historic race for the second year running.
The Mercforce team features Hawkesbury locals Kevin Boylan, observer, and skier Jake Tegart, while the driver and owner is Don Gulley and the other skier is Kris Knights.
The team new record for the Hawkesbury Bridge to Bridge is 37 minutes 34:30 seconds, beating the previous record of 38 minutes flat.
Kevin Boylan told The Gazette that strong competition from initially Stinga, who did not finish the race, and then Superman forced his team to go hard, in conditions which were not ideal for racing.
“The wind picked up and then conditions weren't very favourable to tell the truth,” he said.
“We were pushed all the way up the river, so we just had to go.”
Such was the pace of Mercforce and Superman, the latter also broke the previous record, although finished the race 14 seconds behind Mercforce.
Boylan said the team was elated with the win and breaking the record, after last year falling short of it despite winning.
“It was very fulfilling. I've only done two bridges with Mercforce,” he said.
“It was very special to do it with these guys. They are a great bunch of blokes and it was a special win.”
Boylan, who won his eighth Bridge to Bridge title at the weekend, said last year, with a newly assembled crew, Mercforce did not push as hard they were able to.
“We won last year, and we were very conservative last year and just did what we had to to get the win because we were a new team,” he said.
“This year we knew if we could go we'd have a bit of a dig.”
In other results, Ian Tricker’s TR team won the unlimited inboard class and finished third overall behind Mercforce and Superman.
In the under-19 class, temper 2 was the winner and finished 5th overall.
Temper 2 features Hawkesbury pair Jack Coaldrake and Ben Hackett, who ski and observe respectively in the crew.
Despite some mechanical issues during the race, Temper 2 held on to win its class.
In the unlimited naturally aspirated class, Mental was the fastest boat, and also finishing 11th overall.
