Featherston's Kiwispan Jet Sprint Track roared back to life on Sunday the 7th of December 2025, as the Gray Bros Concrete New Zealand Jetsprint Championship opened its six-round campaign at the Tauherenikau Racecourse. Spectators packed three sides of the venue for the 9 a.m. start, and what followed delivered everything the crowd could have wanted: blistering times, margins measured in hundredths of a second, a dramatic rollover, and a NextGen debut that pointed unmistakably toward the sport's future. By evening, champions had been crowned across four classes, rookies had made their mark, and the 2025-26 season was well and truly underway.
The pre-event paddock buzz was considerable. Matt Hareb's No Limits / Moist-ER #22, part of the Pulse syndicate, made its championship debut, while David Thomas and Anna Hareb bolstered the LS field with their newly acquired GFX. The familiar PSP Jetsprint team emerged under a fresh identity as Systems Racing, carrying its Group A pedigree into a new chapter. Cooper and Tilly Silverton stepped into the NextGen class, a development category growing steadily in stature. Hansen Racing were absent, an engine still awaiting completion in Canada, though their presence was felt through Julie Shanks' daughter Dana, who navigated for Jackson Hopkins in LS.
The morning's most serious moment arrived when the Island Time MTW LS boat clipped a tyre near the exit channel and barrel-rolled across the infield before coming to rest against the safety fence. Driver William Beazley and navigator Lizzie Cook were transported to Wairarapa Hospital in a moderate condition and were later confirmed to be walking. The Jetsprint Association noted that rescue crews reached the boat within seconds, with every safety system performing exactly as designed.
NZ Jet Sprint Association President Julia Murray reflected on the incident in her post-event summary: "That was a great start to the season! We are all super proud of the new Nextgen Class and how they handled their event day training! In the competition classes, one crash with both driver and navigator walking away, maybe a little battered and bruised but otherwise fine. Your heart always sinks when you see a crash. It's a testament to the safety within the boats, and a relief to have them both home and relatively unscathed."
In Southern Jet Superboat, Sam Newdick and Shama Putaranui posted the early benchmark in SBQ1, with Reuben Hoeksema and Suzi Katavich pressing hard from the outset and Rob Coley and Toby Edmonds recovering from a sluggish opening run. Hoeksema found another level through the middle qualifiers, clocking the quickest SBQ2 time before closing the gap to Newdick to within half a second in SBQ3. Mixed conditions through SBQ4 saw most of the field lose ground, yet Newdick held steady. The eliminations tightened the contest further. Newdick led into the Top 9, but Hoeksema produced the standout run of the session in the Top 6, edging ahead by just 0.115 seconds to carry the quickest elapsed time of the day into the final: 47.498 seconds.
It was not enough. Newdick answered in the final with a faultless 47.165, loud and spectacular, to Hoeksema's 47.481. Coley and Edmonds completed the podium with 49.273.
Southern Jet Superboat
1st - Sam Newdick and Shama Putaranui - Systems Racing 2nd - Reuben Hoeksema and Suzi Katavich - 2JZ Jetsprint Team 3rd - Rob Coley and Toby Edmonds - Poison Ivy Jet Sprint Super Boat
Group A unfolded across a full day of pressure, with Ollie Silverton and Amanda Kittow setting the pace through every qualifier and progressively trimming their times. Ross Travers and Jackie Hawker held firm in second, while Bryce Baron and Kylie Baron kept themselves within the top three throughout the middle rounds. The class gained real drama when Kris Rasmussen and Holly Sutherland carved more than nine seconds off Rasmussen's early deficit, climbing to become the closest challenge to the leading two by mid-afternoon.
Then Matt Hareb and Hayden George shifted the entire conversation. Quiet through much of qualifying, the pair stormed the eliminations, posting the fastest Top 9 time in the class before pressing Silverton hard again in the Top 6. The final came down to three boats, each finding something extra when it mattered most. Hareb and George sealed the round with 49.366 seconds, with Silverton and Kittow finishing on 49.550 and Rasmussen and Sutherland close behind on 50.019.
Group A
1st - Matt Hareb and Hayden George - No Limits Racing (No Limits / Moist-ER #22) 2nd - Ollie Silverton and Amanda Kittow - Systems Racing 3rd - Kris Rasmussen and Holly Sutherland - Venom
The MTW LS class began with John Verry and Grace Alder in recovery mode after a slower opening run, but their improvement from 1:06 down to the low 50s established an authority that no one could match. Tim Edhouse and Debbie Edhouse stayed in contention throughout, while Paddy Haden and Jay Haden maintained pace until the Top 6 rounds began to peel the field apart. The tightest racing came in Qualifiers 3 and 4, where as many as four crews were separated by tenths of a second. Jackson Hopkins and Dana Doyle were the story of the eliminations, climbing steadily to take second in the Top 6 before Verry closed out a dominant win. The final saw five crews covered by less than 1.6 seconds, with Verry and Alder finishing on 52.598, Edhouse and Edhouse on 53.702, and Hopkins and Doyle on 53.856.
Mikes Transport Warehouse LS Class
1st - John Verry and Grace Alder - Link ECU Jetsprint Team 2nd - Tim Edhouse and Debbie Edhouse - Liquid Addiction 3rd - Jackson Hopkins and Dana Doyle - Base Racing
MTW Group B was the round's most unpredictable class. Andy Darling and Gemma Johnson swapped the lead through the qualifiers, with their third-qualifier duel settled by just 0.058 seconds. The story changed when Hamish Clarke found a different gear in the eliminations. After a confusing opening qualifier, Clarke and Lisa Seaton topped both elimination sessions and converted that momentum into a round win, completing their run in 56.957 seconds. Greg Wilson and Katie Wilson added further drama in the final when No Idea went sideways into a tyre barrier and spun along the grass, yet the rookie crew still claimed third. Johnson and Richard Currie's best time of the day, 57.434 seconds, earned a podium finish for another rookie pairing.
Group B
1st - Hamish Clarke and Lisa Seaton - Loud N Thirsty 2nd - Gemma Johnson and Richard Currie - Black Forest Jet Sprint Team 3rd - Greg Wilson and Katie Wilson - No Idea Racing
The NextGen class ran as a training demonstration, with seven drivers sharing three single-seat jet sprint boats powered by jetski engines across a shortened course that retained the hairpin and the long front straight. Mason Hareb was the day's standout, dominating the second and third training runs with commanding speed, finishing the day on 56.085 seconds. Cooper Silverton applied consistent pressure throughout the opening rounds and clocked 46.247. Summer Hareb opened strongly, saw her form fluctuate through the middle runs, then surged back in the fourth qualifier to clock the quickest elapsed time of the day at 46.024 seconds, earning herself a victory lap with the chequered flag. The Verry siblings, Ruby and Sam, produced some of the session's tightest gaps, split by less than a second in the third training run. Every run across the class showed rapid improvement, and the category is already worth keeping an eye on.
After thirty crews qualified across the competition classes and a full afternoon of elimination racing, Featherston handed over a clear picture: the championship is open, early leaders have emerged, and the rookies are already making noise. Round 2 runs on the 27th of December at Shelter View Jet Sprint Park, 598 State Highway 4, 12 km north of Whanganui, on the Lincoln Automatics ticket. The tight, technical character of that track will ask different questions of every crew who left Featherston with points on the board.
