Class 1 leader Victory 77 has an easy task taking Euopean championship in Romania
Mamaia, Romania’s largest Black Sea resort, is the
setting for this weekend’s Romanian Grand Prix, round 4 of the WPPA
Class 1 World Powerboat Championship. The third new venue on the
calendar this season, the outcome of the 2007 European title race will
be settled in Romanian waters.
Spirit of
Norway’s much needed win in Oslo has reignited the battle in the world
championship title race, which at one point looked like becoming a
runaway fight between the might of the Middle East, Victory and Qatar.
But Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis proved in the last race, that when
they are dialled-in, they are still the team to beat, and have no
intention of conceding their world title without a supreme fight. But
they are resigned to the fact that their European reign is over, with
Victory the odds on favourites to regain the crown they have held four
times and was last won for them by Ali Nasser and Ali Al Qama in 2004.
For Spirit of Norway the focus now is setting about reducing the
22-point deficit between them and the championship leader’s. But it is
Victory 77, the overall championship leader’s, who head into the race
weekend poised to lift the first silverware of the season, and whilst
both Qatar 96 and Victory 7 are still in with a mathematical chance,
needing the win with Victory 77 to finish outside the points a scenario
which seems unlikely but not impossible.
The
rivalry amongst the top four, all running V12 power-plants, is fierce,
with little separating them in terms of performance. Qatar 96 is
enjoying their strongest start to a season since joining the
championship back in 2003, looking to be real title contenders,
currently lying in second place. Just off the pace of the front-runners
Qatar 95, the strongest of those outfits running V8’s, and after making
steady improvement to performance over the last couple of races, the
team feels it is now all about optimising set-ups, before they too join
the battle at the front.
The middle-order
battle is intriguing, and once again likely be a dog-fight between
Foresti & Suardi’s Giampaolo Montavoci and Marco Penessi and Class 1
rookies, Spirit of Norway 20 the youngsters losing out in Arendal but
winning the duel in Oslo.
Further down the
order, VM Foresti & Suardi and Giorgi and SeveneleveN have struggled
with reliability and they will be looking to at least finish and grab
points in Mamaia. Jotun and Negotiator have had agonising starts to
their seasons, both failing to post points. However have shown on
occasion, that when they have trouble free runs, they are very quick,
especially Jotun in Oslo, who came from the second row start line to be
up with front runners at the first corner before crashing out.
The
European title may well be heading to Dubai, but the outcome of the
first WPPA Class 1 World Powerboat Grand Prix to be staged in Romania is
wide open, and for the teams, a third different type of course and
conditions to come to terms with this season, the 97.76Nm, 21-lap race
being run on the usually calm waters of Mamaia’s Lake Siutghiol.
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