Season launch: Wairarapa turns up the noise
Engines will echo across the Wairarapa on Sunday 7 December, when the 2025/2026 New Zealand Jetsprint Championship roars into life at Featherston’s Kiwispan Jet Sprint Track. Inside the Tauherenikau Racecourse, just east of town, crews from around New Zealand, and a few from overseas, will battle for the first points of a six-round season that promises horsepower, precision, and the unmistakable spectacle of Kiwi motorsport at full noise.
“Get ready to feel the adrenaline!” the New Zealand Jetsprint Association writes. “Boats launch from zero to 130 km/h in under two seconds, carving through 20 corners in less than a minute.”
It is racing as intimate as it is intense, one boat, one track, and no room for error.
Featherston’s track: built, not born
Kevin Cudby’s feature On Track: Featherston Jet Sprint Track, in the November edition of Boating New Zealand, traces how the Featherston circuit replaced the flood-prone river courses of old. Built by local volunteers in 2006 and expanded in 2008, its five-metre-wide channels and grassed spectator banks reshaped Wairarapa’s jet-boating scene. The track fills from the Tauwharenīkau River through a purpose-built pumping system and drains back once the spray has settled. It’s a story well worth reading — a look back at the origins of the venue that now launches every New Zealand jet sprint season.
Known as a true driver’s track, the Featherston Jet Sprint Track (follow their Facebook page for updates) early summer timing guarantees steady river flow and packed spectator banks. We’re looking forward to seeing what 360 Shot Photography captures this year; every frame from Featherston tells its own story of speed, spray, and split-second precision that defines the sport.
Round by round preview
After Featherston, the championship heads north to Whanganui’s Shelter View Track for a double hit, 27 December and 1 March, one of the few circuits equipped for night racing. Wānaka’s NOVUS Glass Aquatrack hosts Round 3 on 17 January, where alpine scenery meets 130 kilometre an hour spray. The all new Mountain View Jetsprint Track near Stratford, Taranaki, makes its debut on 14 February and returns for the grand finale on 21 March 2026.
“A brand new track, a fresh challenge, you will not want to miss it.” — New Zealand Jetsprint Association
Class breakouts
Southern Jet Superboats
The headline act. With unrestricted engines often topping 1,000 horsepower, the Southern Jet Superboats are raw power on methanol.
Hamilton’s Sam Newdick and Shama Putaranui, last season’s runners up, return hungry for redemption. They will face heavy hitters like Rob Coley and Ange Coley in Poison Ivy and Reuben Hoeksema and Suzi Katavich in the 2JZ powered TX Jetsprint, all part of a class where bravery is the throttle.
PSP Racing • Poison Ivy • Jetsprint Team • Novus Glass • Uppa • Ramjet • Bootleggers • Blown Kiwi • Bar’s Bugs • Wired • Illusion • Spartan Time A • Spartan Time B • Blue Flame • The Boss • The X • Jolly Rogers •
QDC Group A
The purists’ class, 600 plus hp Chev motors, lightweight hulls, and fierce competition that rewards precision over brute force.
Ollie Silverton and Amanda Kittow return as defending champions in PSP Racing, chased by Ross Travers, Kris Rasmussen, and Sam Gray, each capable of victory on the day.
PSP Racing • Radio Active • TNT • Currie Racing • Moist-er • Thirsty • Tremains Jetsprint • Venom • Loud ‘N’ Thirsty • Jolly Rogers • Bit 2 L8 • Giant Oils
MTW LS Class
Home to new generation Chev LS engines, up to 580 hp in light alloy hulls, the MTW LS Class is a fan favourite.
Paddy and Jay Haden in Skitzo will again battle Tim and Debbie Edhouse in Liquid Addiction and a stacked field of Kiwi specialists including Sam Tweedie and John Verry. Expect tight margins and plenty of spray.
Pure Insanity • The Fugitive • Skitzo • Liquid Addiction • The Link ECU Boat • Quicksilver • #56 • Island Time • #61 • LS Express
MTW Group B
After a one year break, MTW Group B returns for 2025–26, a stepping stone for developing teams and budget minded racers. Horsepower sits lower than LS Class, the racing is every bit as tight, and often more unpredictable. Many current Superboat stars began here, perfecting their craft in smaller but equally demanding hulls.
Fleet TBC.
NextGen Juniors
The newest addition to the championship, NextGen Juniors gives eight to sixteen year olds a chance to pilot purpose built single seater jet boats. It is the first youth development class in Jetsprint history, a major step toward growing the sport’s future talent. As the Association put it, “The stars of tomorrow hit the water for the very first time.”
Fleet TBC.
Racing format
Each team completes four qualifying runs before the knockout stages, Top 9, Top 6, and Top 3 finals, where tenths of a second decide glory. On a typical course no bigger than a rugby field, boats change direction more than twenty times in under a minute. It is as much choreography as motorsport, and with speeds reaching 130 km/h, the difference between triumph and a watery spin can be a single wrong turn.
All six rounds of the New Zealand Jetsprint Championship 2025/2026 will be live streamed through thebroadcastco.co.nz/watch.
But the real thrill lies in seeing it live — feeling the ground shake, hearing the engines roar, and watching boats dance through the spray. I still remember standing trackside at stockcar racing in Palmerston North as a kid — the smell, the noise, the excitement. Jetsprint racing captures that same magic. It’s the kind of experience that stays with you for life, and might just inspire the next generation of racers.
And with good reason: New Zealand crews are world champions. At the 2025 UIM World Jetsprint Championship, Kiwi teams dominated the results, with Ollie Silverton and Amanda Kittow taking the Group A world title and Sam Newdick and Shama Putaranui finishing runners-up in Superboats. From boat design to driver instinct, New Zealand’s jetsprint racers remain the benchmark for the world.
Final leg: Kiwis battle to the end in UIM World Jet Boat Championships finale
The season ahead
From Wairarapa to Whanganui, Wānaka to Taranaki, the 2025/26 season is shaping up as one of the biggest yet, six rounds, five classes, and a new generation ready to make their mark.
