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“Spirit of Norway” on Pole Position
26.10.2007 |
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| Spirit of Norway’s Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis overcame the roughest conditions of the season so far to produce an extraordinary lap in today’s qualifying session for Saturday’s Egyptian Grand Prix, round 5 of the WPPA Class 1 World Powerboat Championship, to maintain their unbeaten record in the Edox Pole Position Championship, with their fourth win of the season. With the teams facing extreme conditions that forced the race officials to cancel the morning’s practice session and then shorten the course, Gjelsten and Curtis posted a time that left their rivals bewildered. |
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| Spirit of Norway was the first out to take on the extreme seas and set a time of 3mins 23.71secs, but then saw their Norwegian rivals Jotun and then Qatar 96 go quicker. After making a change to their set-up, Curtis and Gjelsten came back out for one more lap and post the fastest time, 3mins 05.43secs, eight seconds quicker than Qatar 96, with Jotun, third quickest. "I think we made a point out there today," said Gjelsten. "Steve is a fantastic throttleman, especially in conditions like this. I picked some good lines out there and the coordination between us was excellent. We used the first lap as a sighting lap, we knew what adjustments we had to make and were confident that in the rough we would be quickest." Second quickest, producing their best Pole Position result of the season, and crucially finishing ahead of championship rivals, Victory77, was Sheikh Hassan and Matteo Nicolini in Qatar 96. "The conditions were very tricky, but we are very pleased with second position and we fulfilled the main objective of staying well ahead of Victory 77," said Sheikh Hassan. "We also showed that our boat is quicker than Victory and that bodes well for the race on Saturday and we need to finish ahead of them to close the gap in the championship." |
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| Also producing an impressive showing today and their best qualifying run of the year was Jotun’s Jorn Tandberg and Christian Zaborowski, going third quickest. "I am very happy with today’s time but it was very tough out there," said Tandberg. "I think if the conditions remain the same tomorrow we have a very good set-up, but in conditions like this you need some luck. The sea is hard to read and you just hope not to catch a big wave." But for Giampaolo Montavoci and Marco Pennesi in Foresti & Suardi, it was a case of one lap too many. After producing their best qualifying performance this season, setting the fourth fastest time, the Italian duo crashed on their final run. "We were running very well, especially on the outside leg. Then we suddenly caught a big wave, the boat went straight up and when she came down we thought we had saved it, but then over we went. It is not possible to repair in time for the race tomorrow but hopefully in time for Qatar." said a disappointed Montavoci. For Victory 77, fifth place was their first time this season outside the top three, but like Qatar 95, in sixth place, both crews erred on the side of caution, choosing not to push too hard and risk damaging the boats. "There was nothing to be gained by pushing in conditions like this. Tomorrow will be a long race and a bit of a lottery. We will see what happens." commented Sanchez. |
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| With both Spirit of Norway and Qatar 96 lining up ahead of the championship leader’s, Victory 77, tomorrow’s Egyptian Grand Prix promises to be an enthralling and demanding race with conditions expected to be as rough as today and the seas as unpredictable. |
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