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Ivan first started circuit powerboat racing in 1961 with the
Waikato Powerboat Club and has always raced “flatties”.
His first boat was named “TAMARIE” powered with
a 1937 side valve Ford V8 motor.
This boat was soon replaced with “ALLEGRO” the boat
in which Ivan won his first NZ Championship in 1964.
Ivan’s third boat “ALLEGRO II” became very
much a short-term project in 1967, the same year NZ changed to
decimal currency.
The 1967 season started very well with Ivan winning the South
Island and North Island Titles. Ivan then won the 1967 National
Championship Title. Ivan’s new generation boat was quick
but things turned bad when it broke in half right through the
cockpit area while at speed during the Easter Regatta at Horeke
on 25th March. “ALLEGRO II” sank in shallow water trapping
an injured Ivan within the wreckage.
After the plaster casts were removed from Ivan, “Allegro
III” was built and launched in 1968. At the first race meeting
for “ALLEGRO III” Ivan got tossed from the boat immediately
prior to a race.
A lesser man might have quit about then but Ivan got straight
back into the boat and won the race to a standing ovation.
Ivan went on to enjoy great success with “ALLEGRO III”,
featuring at most NZ race circuits over a 13-year period.
In addition to numerous Island & National titles, Ivan
in “Allegro III” became the first “flatty”
to win the coveted “King of the Nationals Title”.
The event was in January 1974 and was truly memorable being
against hydroplanes driven by Peter Knight Snr in “BELAIR
III” and Bill Stokes in “VOO-DOO” at Lake Karapiro.
“Allegro III” won the “King of the Nationals
Title” for a second time a few years later at Lake Rotoiti,
South Island.
Up to this time all of Ivan’s race boats were built of
timber and plywood materials.
Ivan retired his very successful “ALLEGRO III” to
race a new generation ‘plastic boat’ called “HOO-DAT”
in 1982. Except for the very first boat, all Ivan’s boats
have run “chev V8” motors of different sizes.
Ivan retired himself from competitive powerboat racing in 1998. |
