DARGLE’s Chris Pugsley has taken out two race wins at the weekend at Taree’s Easter Powerboat Classic including the most prestigious race at the event.
Pugsley, piloting a Decision Racing craft, won the Geoff Stevenson Memorial race as well as the Bradley Pratt Memorial race at Taree on Saturday.
The Geoff Stevenson Memorial race was an emotional one for many at Taree, with Geoff’s son Greg using his dad’s old boat as the start boat for the race.
Puglsey raced for Brent Lewis’ Decision Racing team, piloting a blown unlimited boat for the first time.
“It was terrific, the terminal speed is not a whole lot different but the acceleration is quite incredible,” he said of his experience in the boat.
“I've come up through most of the inboard class categories and my next step will be to run unlimited displacement, so Brent giving me a run in his boat gave me a great leg up.”
Pugsley said he normally raced against Lewis, who is from Queensland.
Pugsley, a veteran campaigner on the boat racing circuit, said he had never won either the Geoff Stevenson Memorial race, or the Bradley Pratt Memorial race before, and he was stoked with the result.
Meanwhile, the Hawkesbury’s Paul Vella was third in the Bradley Pratt Memorial race, and second in the Australian 6000cc Hydroplane Championship.
Brian Sherry and Rapt, his five-litre KT craft, won the Hyper 5 series round. Pugsley said Sherry had a brilliant race, and was looking forward to seeing him and Vella compete in the next round at Dargle in June.