Perth Kite Racing Season Kicks Off

Yesterday (5th of October) saw a spectacular season opener for Perth Kite Racing season 2021 with a punchy Southerly breeze of 18-22kn for all three races. A packed line-up of contenders were on hand with 14 racers entered; 11 in Formula 1 (3 laps of .7nm) and 4 riders in Formula 2 (2 laps). Over the off-season everyone has been training and buying new equipment so everyone was interested to see the improvements, upgraded equipment and skills on show. I was out due to last minute baby-sitting issues so had a good chance to watch and commentate to the parents/friends/racers in the paddock with binos and to check out the “paddock” so here is a summary.

Equipment changes this year have seen a mix of the best kite racing equipment money can buy at PKR. The podium was dominated by Ozone kites -1st Alty R1v4, 2nd Hector on R1v2, 3rd Cooksey on R1v3 with F-One Diablo V5 in fourth (Alex) and Phil and Darren on Flysurfers - Sonic Race/VMG and VMG2 respectively, with the rest of Formula1 on Ozones -Jane, Ron, Logan, Ant. There was also a great mix of the latest foils and boards, with Mike’s Lab foils in all three podium places with Alty on his trusty B3 and Bisschops board, Hector on B4 and Cooksey on ML B3 with a customized board. Alex in fourth was right on the top pace with his Levitaz R5 and BU board and Phil with ML B5/6, Darren on Duotone Indy/Daytona, Jane on Indy/Daytona, Ron on KFA board and Moses comet, Logan also on Duotone and Ant on KFA Mako and custom board.

In the Formula 1 racing, Alty dominated with bullets in the first two races and coming from behind after a crash at the top mark in race 3 to finish with a podium. There was fierce competition for the rest of the podium with Hector, Cooksey and Alex trading places repeatedly throughout the races with Cooksey smashing out a hard fought bullet in race three with Hector and Alex close behind. Dr Phil was just behind the top pace with a strong consistent performance, followed by Darren, both seeing consistent finishes for 5,5,5 and 6,6,6 (Darren noted this may be an omen). Stand out performances by Hector who was devastatingly fast on V2 kites, as Alty said “don’t let Hector have brand new kites!”, and Alex was incredibly fast upwind today, repeatedly overtaking Perth’s finest racers on the upwind legs with the new R5 and Diablo5 combo which, like Alex, obviously have massive potential. Ant who is normally right up with the fastest riders suffered equipment failure with his kite being damaged in race 1, watch out for Ant in coming races this season on his new Mako4!

The second half of Formula 1 (someone called them Formula 1.5) saw fierce competition hot on Darren’s heals. Jane fought off some incredibly hard racing with newcomer Logan and both were pursued by Ron, Aaron and Tom who also suffered some kite damage in the challenging conditions. Jane managed to finish all three Formula 1 races with three 7s and Ron and Logan swapped 8ths and 9ths both pushing Jane to the finish line, a fantastic performance by all.

Formula 2 racing saw Ben, Nigel and Aaron all successfully conquering the tough conditions to put in solid performances with Ben taking three bullets on his Sonic3 kites and Moses foil/board and Nigel and Aaron performing really well on Ozone R1s and Duotone and Chubanga2 foils respectively. Ben smashed out all his laps and Nigel successfully completed Race 1 before deciding to watch the action from the club for race2 and 3. Up and coming hot-shot Aaron did his first proper racing on full race equipment and is showing great promise for such a new talent into the sport, with good speed and completed the first two races before taking his kite for a swim in race 3.

Everyone agreed this was an awesome season opener. Next time I’ll be racing so I’ll miss getting to watch all the fun through bino’s, but we will have a drone operator so should have some footage to share after next race. Can’t wait for the rest of the awesome Perth Kite Racing season!

Words Derek Voller