Featherston fires the starting gun on a six-round season
Sunday 7 December marks the beginning of something loud. The 2025/2026 New Zealand Jetsprint Championship gets underway at Featherston's Kiwispan Jet Sprint Track, tucked inside the Tauherenikau Racecourse just east of town. Crews from across New Zealand and a handful from overseas will arrive chasing the first championship points of a season that spans six rounds, five classes, and one very new youth category making its debut on the national stage.
“Get ready to feel the adrenaline!” the New Zealand Jetsprint Association writes. “Boats launch from zero to 130 km/h in under two seconds, carving through 20 corners in less than a minute.”
One boat, one track, no room for error. It is racing at its most concentrated.
The Featherston circuit has a history worth knowing. Kevin Cudby's feature, On Track: Featherston Jet Sprint Track, published in the November edition of Boating New Zealand, tells the story of how this venue replaced the unpredictable river courses that jetsprint once depended on. Local volunteers built the track in 2006 and expanded it in 2008, cutting five-metre-wide channels and shaping grass spectator banks that now accommodate some of the sport's most passionate crowds. Water is drawn from the Tauwharenīkau River through a purpose-built pumping system, then drained back once racing wraps up. The article gives the full story the detail it deserves.
The early-summer timing of the Featherston round is no accident. Steady river flow is guaranteed, and the spectator banks are reliably packed. Follow the Featherston Jet Sprint Track Facebook page for event updates as the date approaches. We are looking forward to seeing what 360 Shot Photography captures this year, with every frame from Featherston telling its own story of speed, spray, and split-second precision.
After Featherston, the championship pushes north to Whanganui's Shelter View Track for two visits, 27 December and 1 March, one of a small number of circuits in the country set up for night racing. Round 3 takes the field to Wānaka's NOVUS Glass Aquatrack on 17 January, where speeds reaching 130 kilometres an hour play out against a backdrop of alpine scenery. February 14 brings a genuinely fresh challenge: the all-new Mountain View Jetsprint Track near Stratford in Taranaki makes its competition debut. That same venue then hosts the grand finale on 21 March 2026.
“A brand new track, a fresh challenge, you will not want to miss it.” — New Zealand Jetsprint Association
The championship is contested across five classes, each with its own character and its own contenders.
Southern Jet Superboats sit at the top of the bill. Engines in this class are unrestricted and frequently exceed 1,000 horsepower, running on methanol and making a noise that carries well beyond the track boundary. Hamilton's Sam Newdick and Shama Putaranui finished runners-up last season and return with scores to settle. Standing in their way are Rob Coley and Ange Coley in Poison Ivy, along with Reuben Hoeksema and Suzi Katavich in the 2JZ-powered TX Jetsprint. The full Superboat field reads: PSP Racing, Poison Ivy, Jetsprint Team, Novus Glass, Uppa, Ramjet, Bootleggers, Blown Kiwi, Bar's Bugs, Wired, Illusion, Spartan Time A, Spartan Time B, Blue Flame, The Boss, The X, and Jolly Rogers.
QDC Group A is the class for purists. Chev motors producing 600-plus horsepower sit in lightweight hulls, and the racing rewards precision over sheer force. Ollie Silverton and Amanda Kittow step up as defending champions in PSP Racing, but Ross Travers, Kris Rasmussen, and Sam Gray are all capable of taking victory on their day. The full Group A lineup: PSP Racing, Radio Active, TNT, Currie Racing, Moist-er, Thirsty, Tremains Jetsprint, Venom, Loud 'N' Thirsty, Jolly Rogers, Bit 2 L8, and Giant Oils.
The MTW LS Class has built a reputation as a fan favourite, pairing new-generation Chev LS engines producing up to 580 horsepower with light alloy hulls that keep the racing tight and the margins slim. Paddy and Jay Haden in Skitzo are set to renew their rivalry with Tim and Debbie Edhouse in Liquid Addiction, with Sam Tweedie and John Verry among those pushing hard across a well-stocked field. The class entry list includes Pure Insanity, The Fugitive, Skitzo, Liquid Addiction, The Link ECU Boat, Quicksilver, #56, Island Time, #61, and LS Express.
MTW Group B is back after a one-year absence, offering a home for developing teams and budget-conscious racers. Horsepower is lower than in the LS Class, but the competition is no less demanding, and results are often harder to predict. Many of the current Superboat field cut their teeth here, using smaller hulls and closer racing to sharpen the instincts that eventually carried them to the top class. The fleet for this season is yet to be confirmed.
The newest addition to the championship structure is NextGen Juniors, a youth development class for competitors aged eight to sixteen, piloting purpose-built single-seater jet boats. It is the first youth development class in Jetsprint history, and as the Association put it, "The stars of tomorrow hit the water for the very first time." The fleet is still to be confirmed.
The racing format is consistent across all six rounds. Each crew completes four qualifying runs before the competition narrows through Top 9, Top 6, and Top 3 knockout finals. The courses themselves are compact, no larger than a rugby field in most cases, yet boats change direction more than twenty times in under a minute while travelling at up to 130 km/h. It is equal parts motorsport and choreography, and a single mistimed turn is enough to convert a winning run into a spinning, drenched exit.
New Zealand's standing in this sport goes well beyond local pride. At the 2025 UIM World Jetsprint Championship, Kiwi crews dominated across the classes, with Ollie Silverton and Amanda Kittow claiming the Group A world title and Sam Newdick and Shama Putaranui finishing runners-up in Superboats. From hull design to driver instinct, New Zealand's jetsprint competitors remain the standard against which the rest of the world measures itself.
All six rounds of the New Zealand Jetsprint Championship 2025/2026 will be live streamed through thebroadcastco.co.nz/watch. The full experience, the ground vibrating underfoot, the engine noise arriving before the boat does, the spray catching the light as a crew threads a perfect line, belongs to those watching from the bank. From Wairarapa to Whanganui, Wānaka to Taranaki, the season ahead is shaping up as one of the most compelling yet.
