Horne twins finish in top 10

By Matthew Kappos and Zoe McMaugh

Feb 14, 2024

The Horne twins - Kane and Bryce - in action during Saturday’s President’s Dash. Photo by Aidan Briggs

The Horne twins will have to wait another year to see if they can make it a three-peat in the Southern 80 Unlimited Inboard Naturally Aspirated Expert Echuca Performance.

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Due to a fatality on the water on Sunday morning, the rest of the day’s events - including their class - were cancelled.

Bryce and Kane, skiing behind Agrovation, were only able to complete one of their scheduled ski races at the weekend due to the incident.

In the President’s Dash on Saturday, the team - which also consists of driver Chris Doonan and their father Stuart Horne as observer - placed sixth.

They registered a time of seven minutes and 29.70 seconds, not far behind winner Temper 2 who finished in seven minutes and 4.11 seconds.

“We did have some minor hiccups when the boat would not cooperate, which caused us to slow down for about 10 seconds,” Bryce said.

“We are still happy with the result considering the field, but we could have recorded a better time if it had not been for the delay.”

Stalker finished 13th in the President's Dash on Saturday. Photo by Aidan Briggs

Brother Josh Horne - part of team Stalker, consisting of fellow skier Matthew Hilet, driver Peter Hilet and observor Simon Zealley - finished in 13th place in the Dash with a time of seven minutes and 43.93 seconds.

A plethora of teams had their efforts rewarded with class victories in the social classes on Saturday, run over the shorter course from Five Mile Boat Ramp to Victoria Park.

Unlimited inboard social was won by ORSM Racing and the team of Jason Dingli, Jack Heather, Blake Dingli and Matthew Arnall, with all but Heather returning from last year’s winning squad to record a time of seven minutes and 41.78 seconds.

The unlimited outboard social class was taken out by Speed Lab, with team members Darren Hitchcock, Russell Hitchcock, Brandan McGlynn and Kye Fraser logging a record-breaking time of 8:37.49.

Stuart Evans, Greg Norton, Joshua Reid and Owen Dyball took Synthetic to a win in the 5.2 and 6-litre social in a time of 9:20.26.

*ORSM Racing* won the unlimited inboard social class for the third year running. Photo: Aidan Briggs Photo by Aidan Briggs

*Synthetic* kicks up spray as it rounds a corner. Photo: Steve Huntley Photo by Steve Huntley

Raptor scored victory in SMOC social, with Andrew Donehue, Frazer Donehue and Ashley Caruana skiing a repeat victory, while skier Ray Cole joined the team as it went back-to-back in a time of 9:08.98.

The open women social/Dawn Rowbottom memorial was won by the team of Sixteen 48 Racing, with Adam Tuddenham, Sam Perry, Emma Tuddenham and Holly-Jade Praszczalek completing the course in 9:27.51, beating out last year’s winner HiJact to take the class.

Under-16 social saw The Dragon claim victory, with Ben Casey, Claire Lee, Jack Casey and Cooper Stephenson recording a time of 9:35.35 to secure class honours.

Under-14 social was won by Trim Lab, with Henry Arnall and Tom Casey recording their second straight victory in the class after last year being part of Cyclone Warning, while Aaron Sheath and Ben Gardiner made up the team that logged a time of 9:32.27.

Under-12 social saw Smoke N Mirrors F2 score a win, with the team of Ashley Cox, David Davkovski, Beau Glynn and Lucas Dvkovski making a winning run in a time of 12:07.29.

Disabled was won by The Joker and its team of Trinton Smith, Paul Tannenberg and Tyler Tannenberg, who took out the class in 9:22.22.

The Under-10s boys and girls was won by Alabama, which recorded a time of 12:22.71 to take out the class thanks to the efforts of Jamie Oliver, Shontelle Armstrong and Maddison Oliver.

Victory in the veterans class went to Superman for the second year in a row, with its team of Darren McGuire, Steven Robertson, Daniel Cotton and Daniel Graziano remaining unchanged from last year as it logged a time of 7:28.41.