Crazy world news: Jet boat world series puts Aussie farming town on the map
Nov 8, 2018
It seems wild, but track racing with V8 powered jet boats is alive and well in farm country Down Under. (Maybe they could replicate this in Saskatchewan???)
Two years ago, the northwest corner of the Keith Showgrounds was a dusty paddock. Two weekends ago (October 27& 28) it hosted World Series V8 Superboat racing.
The October 27-28 event attracted an estimated 5000 visitors to the South Australian farming town with a population of just 1200.
It will be the crowning moment for the volunteers at the Keith & Tintinara District Show Society who built the track for its Diesel & Dirt Derby, which is a fundraiser for its once struggling show.
The 2018 Penrite UIM World Series brought boats across from International Group A and Unlimited Superboats classes including teams from New Zealand and the United States.
A second and final round of 2018 World Series racing will be held at Cabarita in New South Wales on November 3 and 4.
The World Series is held every two years but this is the first time Australia has hosted the major international event since 2010.
The small farming community of Keith is 250km southeast of the South Australian capital Adelaide on the main road to Melbourne and 100km away from a major waterway. (Editor note: in the middle of virtually no water rather like Saskatchewan, no?)
With just a few hundred dollars in the bank, the Keith Show committee started the annual Diesel & Dirt Derby in 2013, which includes country motorsport events such as tractor pulls, buggy racing and a header demolition derby, and added jet boat racing last year to take it up a notch.
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The Keith jet boat track has hosted rounds of the Australian V8 Superboats series the past two years in conjunction with its Diesel & Dirt Derby, which this year attracted almost 12,000 people – roughly 10 times the town’s population.
It has put Keith on the map,” Simpson said. “It’s hard to believe that in a couple of years we’ve gone from an open paddock that we dug a trench in and pushed a bit of dirt around to a world series.”
