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Event |
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| 28th September - 30th September |
Portuguese
Grand Prix |
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The run up to the Portuguese Grand Prix
had been fraught with problems. Firstly, we’d had to replace
some engine mountings and fix some damage to the hull where we
had struck something in Belgium. We had then had to remove an
engine to be dyno tested by P1 so with only 3 weeks to go to the
finals, the boat was in bits again! All credit to Race
and Marine and sponsors Osmotech for assisting us with the
repairs to the boat and getting the mountings fixed. Their
commitment enabled us to get to the Grand Prix and even allowed
for some testing the weekend the boat left to get to Portugal. |
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| 8th September - 9th September |
Belgian Grand
Prix |
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There is always one defining race
during the season where a competitor breaks down, you suffer bad
luck or bad weather decimates the racing fleet. It is very unusual
to see all of this during the course of a single Grand Prix. Zeebrugge was determined to change all this. With boats breaking
gear boxes, hulls delaminating, boats driving onto the beach and
on board fires, Zeebrugge had it's fair share of dramas! |
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| 24th August - 26th August |
British Grand
Prix |
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The run up to Cowes had been
fraught with problems for us. Would our replacement props
(having lost our best ones racing in Germany) arrive from the
States in time? Had replacing the engine sensors cured the
engine management problems we had seen in testing? What was the
weather going to be like? Personally I do not like flat circuit
type courses so I had been looking forward to Cowes as it’s
nearly always rough. Watching the weather forecasts like a hawk
for over a week and trying to find one I liked was frustrating!!
But it was not to be and annoyingly the conditions were flat. |
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| 30th June - 1st July |
German Grand
Prix |
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When we missed our flight to
Germany on Thursday night the alarm bells rang, it felt like it
was just going to be one of those weekends that you would choose
to forget. I could have made a jovial account of the weekend and
the things that went wrong (missing a flight, breaking a prop
etc.) but it does not seem right to make light of what was a
terrible weekend for all involved with powerboat P1. It is with
a heavy heart that I write this report. |
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| 26th - 27th May 2007 |
Grand Prix of
Naples |
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In the
2006 season, there were 4 races in Italy (Anzio and Gallipoli)
and we didn't score a single point! Coming into Naples we hoped
that things could only get better. With a new boat name and a
new race number coming into Naples (both of which are supposed
to be bad luck for a boat), we could only hope that our Italian
fortunes would improve! First indications for the weekend
started with practice on Friday ...
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| 5th - 6th May 2007 |
Grand Prix
of Malta
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As usual Malta was its usual
windy self. Testing took place on Friday, on a shortened
course. A big mistake by me gave us one spectacular moment when
I backed off coming into a very large wave, the boat went
vertical landing on its transom and I really thought she would
go over backwards. Several teams saw what happened and promptly
turned back into the harbour sensibly not willing to risk their
vessels and themselves for the following day! However nothing
could have prepared us for Saturday’s conditions….. |
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| 30th Sept - 1st Oct 2006 |
Portuguese
Grand Prix |
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The four weeks leading
up to Portugal were torturous to say the least. Both engines had
to be removed to fix oil leaks which meant major work on Steve
Causley our mechanic’s part and you just never know whether it’s
all going to be working OK. Testing in the Solent gave us a bit
more reassurance and we made sure we put the boat through its
paces before returning back to shore. All seemed OK….. |
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| 26th - 27th August |
British Grand
Prix |
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After our troubles in Italy we
approached the British Grand Prix on a mission! Steve Causley
our mechanic had worked hard over the few weeks between races
and with testing, the problems with the boat had been sorted. |
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| 29th - 30th July |
Mediterranean Grand Prix |
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This race report
will take a different format from the usual ones. Basically it
was one hell of a bad weekend and we didn’t finish one race! So
I thought maybe a few days in the life of a raceboat team in
angst would be a better format ... here goes! |
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| 1st - 2nd July |
German Grand
Prix |
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We got a good
start but were then stuck between two boats with no where to go.
I suddenly spotted some clean water to the right of the line and
turned out of the messy water to some clean stuff and away we
went with a good start and leading the SuperSport pack! |
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| 3rd - 4th June 2006 |
Grand Prix of
Anzio |
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Anzio is the
second race of the P1 series. Near Rome it was a great location
and very pretty. However we arrived to storms and force 7 winds
so the racing was going to get interesting! … |
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| 13th - 14th May 2006 |
Grand Prix of
Malta |
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As it was our first race for 18
months and we still had important testing to do, so we decided
to get to Malta early. We were up bright and early Thursday
morning to see the boats arrive with a police escort off the
ship. It was great to see the boat and lorry arrive after the
long and arduous journey through France and Italy. |
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For older reports please see our
archive. |
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