Boats rev up the lake

SPECTATORS crowded along the shores of Lake Eppalock last weekend as speedboat drivers from all over Australia competed for gold.

The Eppalock Gold Cup is an annual speed boat championship that holds the promise of prestige and recognition of skill for the winners, but for those who come to watch the sport the main draw is the noise.

Hayley O’Brien and daughter Shelley travelled to Eppalock for the race and said they loved the noise of the boats.

“I’ve grown up around it” she said. “It’s an attraction I reckon, like people come for the noise.”

Among their favourite boats at the cup was Aussie Connection, an historic racing boat that Ms O’Brien said she remembers seeing when she was a kid.

The 1960s era hydroplane is one of the largest racing speedboats still competing and houses a modified merlin engine, originally from a World War Two fighter plane.

The noise generated by Aussie Connection is, according to some fans, iconic, a sentiment driver Ricky Howard would agree with.

“When they got it going again my son hadn’t seen it run and I brought him down here just to see it run, I said you’ve got to see this thing and hear it, you’ve got to experience it,” he said.

“At full song when it’s running it’s just a sweet sound.”

Mr Howard said he was honoured to be able to pilot Aussie Connection alongside other hydroplanes, such as current racing standard, the GP1.

“You’re probably not going to win with it, you’re not going to beat a GP 1 with it, but it’s beautiful,” he said.

Although heads turned when Aussie Connection took to the course, the three-tonne boat was not able to compete on the day due to engine failure, leaving the cup to be claimed by Melton Toyota’s GP 1.

Pilot, Grant Harrison, was the Eppalock defending champion and he and his team confidently retook the cup in their first 2024 victory.

“We’ve won it a number of times now,” he said. “Years ago it was a very prestigious trophy and it’s growing back in stature now.”

Harrison started racing when he was 18 years of age and said he was excited to be one of the elite speedboat drivers in Australia.

“It’s a fairly unique sport. Everybody drives a car, everybody can pretend to be Michael Schumacher or a V8 supercar driver but not too many people get to drive a grand prix hydroplane,” he said.