Novice wants to sprint to No 1

by Shane Hurndell | 12th March 2010

 In most sports there's a few build-up events involved before one tackles a world championship.

For Waipukurau jetsprint navigator Tanya Iremonger it was a case of world champs first, other events later, when she teamed up with Auckland driver Baden Gray.

Their first outing together was last year's world championships in Australia where they finished 13th.

"Our motor didn't like the altitude," said Iremonger, who will be the only Hawke's Bay competitor in Sunday's fourth round of the Jetpro Jetsprint New Zealand Championship at Crownthorpe.

"But that experience we had together has obviously paid off," said Iremonger reminding SportToday they have won the Group A class title in the three previous rounds.

"I want to be 1NZ at the end of the season.

"If Aaron can't be, I want to be," said Iremonger, referring to her husband, Aaron, who won the Best of the Rest Trophy at the New Zealand stockcar championship in Wanganui earlier this month after failing to qualify for the championship races.

Before combining with Gray, who has raced for the past five years, Iremonger's only previous jetsprinting experience was a season with Aaron. The mum of two toddlers under 2 got pregnant after that season, so her hubby switched to karting for a season before returning to speedway for his 13th season in stockcars.

"Navigating was something I enjoyed, so I put the word out for a fulltime seat and got the call from Baden before the worlds. I would love to do it for 12 months but there's only six rounds in each series over four months," said Iremonger.

"I learned a lot off Aaron and I enjoy keeping Baden level-headed. We spun out in the second race at the last round ... I told Baden you can't win a round in the second race," the 29-year-old said.

Sunday will be the first time Iremonger has competed in her home province. Because she is the only Hawke's Bay competitor among the 30 teams, the hairdresser and office manager intends to make the most of the "home track advantage".

"I'm so excited ... I'm trying to get as many people as possible out there to support us," said Iremonger.

SportToday would understand if she was feeling the extra pressure associated with performing at home. But she isn't.

"We just need a top-four finish in the next two rounds to take out the series. Our biggest concern at each round is the fact our boat Teng Tools is shared ... the risk of it being damaged is greater," said Iremonger.

Gray's brother-in-law, Bevin Muir, of Thames, who won the 1NZ title in the class last year, also races the boat which Gray won the 3NZ title in last year.

Despite being the only local, Iremonger was unable to score an early training drive on the Riverside track this week.

"Like everyone else, our first run at the rotation will be our first qualifying race. Although the rotations are in the programme for the series we get before round one, I didn't start looking at those until last night ... any earlier and I would have got confused," added Iremonger who wants to race stockcars when her jetsprinting days are over.

While Gray and Iremonger boast a seven-point lead in their class, Superboat class leader Richard Burt, of Palmerston North, has a six point lead and Lites class leader Dave Stone of Bulls has a one point lead.

Points are so close in the glamour Superboat class, fifth placed Waitotara farmer Duncan Wilson is within striking distance of Burt's lead.

Wilson won the Crownthorpe round last year and finished second to Burt in the battle for overall honours.