Overcast skies and muggy conditions didn’t deter diehard supporters from making the trip out to watch the first running of the new-look Beehag.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Originally a 60km event, the Beehag was this year extended to a longer 100km race format. Boats completed a 50km leg from Torrumbarry to Wills Bend, before making the return trip.
Moama Water Sports Club president Steve Shipp was thrilled with the event, which ran without major incident.
“It went really well and the comments we got back from the competitors, they love the new format and they love the longer race,” Shipp said.
“It went good. There’s just always a couple of things you’ve got to do, but there was nothing major, so it all went through smoothly.”
A total of 94 boats took to the line for the new-look edition, which Shipp was overjoyed with considering it was the first Beehag of any distance since 2019.
However, he said there was always room to expand in future editions.
“Yeah, we certainly want to grow going forward,” he said.
“Some of the competitors I spoke to, a couple of them told me the same thing.
“They thought that the Beehag was something that, if you’re serious about doing the (Southern) 80, you need to do the Beehag first so you’re in tune with the river, so that’s a very good plus for it.”
The race was won by Sapphire, the reigning Southern 80 champion, with driver Tim Pickford and observer Brian Griffin waving the flag for Echuca.
There were strong results for other locals across the board, according to Shipp.
“There were some good local teams to come through that went strongly,” he said.
“We had Sapphire obviously winning it outright and a couple of other boats that frequent here like 99 Psycho Clowns (went strongly).
“Agrovation from Shepparton won the naturally aspirated class, which is a good local boat with local skiers from Mathoura.
“You’ve got Sportspage here, (owner Dean Johns) is on the committee as well, he went really well, so there was some really good results for some locals.”
Being the first edition of the race, Sapphire set a course record of 39:01 to win the race outright, ahead of Brimstone F1 in second (39:38), while third overall was Temper F1 (40:08), which also claimed the unlimited inboard expert class.
Double Duty (48:07) claimed the honours in the unlimited outboard expert class, while Elm St (42:48) was the fastest among the sportsman’s 100mph class.
Agrovation (42:18) beat out Sportspage (46:02) to win the naturally aspirated inboard class, while Avenger (46:40) proved too strong in the clubman’s class.
The SMOC expert category was won by Raptor (50:19), the under-18 expert class was taken out by White Lightning (54:02) and Shortcut Racing (48:43) nabbed the win in the under-16 expert category.
Sapphire F2 was first across the line in the under-14 expert class (1:00:45), Migraine (49:21) was fastest in the invincibles category and Shooter Reloaded (53:40) won the 70mph expert class.
Cranky Missus (1:00:53) was the quickest boat in the 60mph expert, while Rapid Pulse (1:17:26) won the under-12 expert category.
Following a successful first running of the longer distance race, Shipp said the MWSC committee had already confirmed the Beehag again for next year.
“Absolutely, and we’ve already got that planned, it will be on November 16 next year,” he said.