Class 1 - Constanta Romania Preview

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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