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All female crew up to speed

JETSETTERS: Best mates Jo Teki (left) and Donna Thomson are blazing a trail on the jetsprinting scene as the only all-girl team on the New Zealand circuit. PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY

JETSETTERS: Best mates Jo Teki (left) and Donna Thomson are blazing a trail on the jetsprinting scene as the only all-girl team on the New Zealand circuit. PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY

Blonde is simply not in the equation when best mates Donna Thomson and Jo Teki hit the water.

The Wanganui ladies are the only all-girl team competing on the New Zealand Jetpro Jetsprinting circuit. While there are many female navigators, driving the small but powerful craft is definitely a male dominated sport.

Jetsprinting is a serious sport with most craft generating anywhere between 500hp and 1000hp and while Thomson and Teki may be blonde, the jokes simply don't apply when they hit the water in their 406 cubic inch V8 Chev-powered boat - they love it.

The pair got into the sport mainly through Thomson's partner Nick Candish's involvement in helping build the Shelterview course on farmland at Upokongaro, just north of Wanganui.

Candish also spent several seasons navigating on the New Zealand circuit and in the 2004 world series in Australia.

"When I was watching Nick and the others race I immediately wanted to have a go myself," Thomson said.

Candish said his partner had not stopped talking about having a go since 2004. During a Bathurst (Australian motor racing meeting) party Thomson asked her mate if she would navigate. A boat was bought and fine-tuned for the Lites class by Rivers Speed and Spares mechanic Dean Scott.

"Nick and his dad Des helped us get into the boat initially through their business D and N Builders, but we are on the lookout for sponsors," Thomson said.

Apart from one brief outing on the Whanganui River, Thomson and Teki debuted in the third round of the NZ Jetpro series at Featherston just last weekend, but heavy rain forced the abandonment of the meet after one round.

"Our first run we clocked 90 seconds, but got that down to 63s in the second before I blew it and went the wrong way," Thomson said. "We came out again and clocked 60s before breaking the 60s barrier in our last run before the rain came. We gained 19 points and we weren't last."

The girls have aptly named their craft "Two A Breast" and wear nipple pink helmets to match the colour scheme of the boat.

"We have custom-made pink and black overalls coming for our next meeting too."

That next meeting is again at Featherston next weekend and the pair will be racing in the Lites class that will form part of the support card for the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM) Wanganui.com World Series.

"The World Series is only for Superboats and Group A classes, so we won't be racing for points, but we will be giving it our best shot, regardless," Thomson said.

Negotiating a jetsprint course in shallow waters around islands on a tight turning circuit is a tricky business. The rotation around the course must be memorised by the teams and like many others in the game Thomson and Teki name each island and create a story line around the names to help memorise the rotations. "Once you've got it in your head it's not that hard really," Thomson said.

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