Chasing the Racing
Young Powerboat Racer Ben Viney got introduced to Circuit Powerboat Racing at the age of 8 when his dad took him along to “see” the boats. Since then it’s been a lot of hard work for Ben to persuade his parents to let him race and to raise the money to buy his boat.
He started his racing career in the J250 class and now at the age of 15 Ben has just finished his first season in the OSY400 class.
Ben shares his story below showing that with a little hard work and lots of determination anyone can get involved in powerboat racing if they want to;
“Cold, wet and with biggest smile on my face that you would have ever seen is how you would have found me four years ago! I was at Stewartby Water Sports lake waist deep in the water helping launch anyone and everyone who had a Circuit race boat, in the slip way and I loved every minute of it! It was great, brilliant fun and actually quite useful (I hope).
I’ve been going along to circuit race meetings since I was eight years old. My Dad took me to see ‘the boats’. The week before we went (I had been told I was going) I spent most of the weekend before watching the rowing on TV. I had no idea what a power boat looked like I’d never seen any picture video or anything like that. My Dad told me they were ‘specialised’ just like a rowing boat! Now being only eight at the time I was busy only half listening and all I heard was ‘they are like rowing boats’ so I was now glued to the TV watching Cambridge beating Oxford or something like that.
I awoke in our tent on the Saturday morning to find myself surrounded by boats of all different shapes and sizes and from that moment on I wanted one. More than I’ve wanted anything in my whole life (so far).
So I spent the next two years going around getting everyone’s autographs and continually asking my parents if I could have a boat and they always said ‘no’, which is fair enough my mum because we didn’t have a lot of money and I was heavily involved in my church so I couldn’t make the racing every weekend. Also my Dad help with other boats and this meant that he wouldn’t have the time to help me to race as well as being a mechanic for a 350cc hydroplane as well!
So with answer being ‘no’ I looked to see if I could do what my Dad did and went to ‘help’ the Morse’s junior racing team. I was more of a hindrance than a help (I imagined) as I didn’t really do a lot I just did the odd job and helped to launch the boat.
I started to get wet and go into the slip way and turn the boats around put them on the trailers and people started to ask me to help them though most of them I had never seen before but I helped them anyway. Then one thing lead to another before I knew it I was moving F2’s about the place. And this really brings me full circle to where I started telling this story four years ago.
Living in Kent has its good points and bad points. Some of the good ones are that it’s a nice place to live and I’ve got loads of friends and family down here. One of the not so good points is that sometimes it takes me 6, 7 even 9hours to get to a circuit race meeting. 9hours!! It’s a long time and a long way but I love the sport so much I’ll travel the journey anyway.
It was on one of these trips to St Helens, Liverpool circuit at Carr Mill dam that I was offered a go in a their J250 power boat. I’d wanted a boat for five years I could hardly say no could I!
And that was it I loved it! I thought it was brilliant racing along sticking it into a corner and praying that it comes out on the other side! I tried to persuade my parents to let me buy a boat and finally after much discussion they agreed on one very simple but also troubling term. That was that I would have to fund all of it myself. Fair enough a family of five with three children all leading a hectic life style doesn’t come cheap! So I started working to see if I could raise enough money to by a boat. But then I found, my first problem I didn’t have a job.
My target was £2000. I already had some money stored away in a trust fund but even still if I managed to work and get all the money I need to buy a boat I would need to pay for everything else in like racing overalls, licence, water fee, if something went wrong, oil..... the list goes on and on and on. Except for one thing that was the fuel, my parents had said that they could pay for that (thank goodness). But even then I still didn’t have a job!
My Dad managed to produce something truly amazing. He found me a job for the company he works for. It produces electrical components and these go all over the world to China, America, France and even Sunderland? But as it turns out its most of the components are made in China. This means that if they need a product delivery within two months they might have to break up or put together thousands of components. And this was my job to alter the components. I got paid anything from £3.20 to £10.90 for each box (each box contains about 1600 components). It took me a whole year to save up the money and work for it but I did it and I would do it again gladly!
I managed to by a second hand J250 Barracuda which is a fairly old boat but very strong. In its day it had broken the British speed record and held it until very recently (until Ben Morse destroyed the record with a brand new Winrace hull). I loved that boat it was brilliant it wasn’t the fastest out there and with my added weight it was never going to be. But me and my family raced all over the country. I managed in my first season to get 5th in the National Championship and 2nd in the club championship something I couldn’t have done without their help. And because of this I received an award for ‘the best new comer’ at the annual dinner.
The next year was much the same apart from a couple of glitches where the boat was crashed into and had to be repaired I managed to get 6th Nationally and 1st in the club racing. Not bad considering I was in the oldest boat on the circuit and weighed twice as much as the lightest driver.
By this time I was struggling to fit into my boat, this was demonstrated when I was racing at Cholmondeley I was battling for 4th when I dived up the inside of the boat next to me and it hooked and swung around and hit me full in the face (I love the inventor of the crash helmet I owe him my life many times over) surprisingly I couldn’t remember anything else about that day, though apparently I raced better once I had been hit over the head! The problem was I was 5ft 7in and I needed to be about 5ft 2in. So I was forced to sell the boat. My racing future looked bleak. I was only fourteen (15 next year) and I didn’t look like I would be able to race for another two years! Because as far as I was aware I couldn’t race again until I was sixteen.
But then by strange coincidence I found out that I could race something when I was 15. I could race an OSY 400. These are lay down hydroplanes something I had never done or even thought much about but suddenly it seemed the way forward. I sold the J250 and then searched for an OSY and I found one, a Newace Boat, made by the current British and world champion and his team. It was being sold second hand, only a year old as the man who I was buying it of had back injuries.
So I started working again and trying to raise the money and once again my Dad pulled through and managed to get me some more work. I managed to buy the boat and have just finished a season in it. I came 7th Nationally and either 1st or 2nd (results haven’t been released yet) in the club championship.
All of this wouldn’t have been possible without everyone who has helped me throughout the season, so thank you to everyone one who helped me! And wish me luck next season!
Benjamin Viney
OSY 400, Team Viney, race number 58