WITH Suzanne Hearnden, of Hatch End funeral directors Hearnden and Daughters, navigating, and her husband Lee Smith driving, the Honda 150 octane powerboat Spirit of Octane scored a good third place in their first race meeting of the season at Torquay on Sunday.

The qualifying race on Saturday was tough, with rough waters and swells of up to one and a half metres in places a constant hazard.

But the local duo shot into pole position and kept ahead until they hit a rogue wave, and driver Lee was thrown into the lap of navigator Suzy, killing the engine and resulting in the boat slipping back to third place.

After struggling to restart the engine they continued the race and pushed their way back to pole position and held it to the finish to clinch pole position for the afternoon's race.

In their heat the duo achieved a phenomenal second position, again despite the very choppy waters and swells reaching up to two metres, which had many teams in difficulty.

On Sunday the conditions did not look so promising but, once again, the duo maintained their pole position from Saturday's race and, up against some very experienced teams, they did well to secure a third place finish.