Sail-World.com : Conam Yachts double win in Malta Grand Prix
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Conam Yachts double win in Malta Grand Prix |
#44 Conam Yachts pilot Aaron Ciantar has acknowledged that his double SuperSport victory and overall Grand Prix of the Sea victory on home waters in Malta is the highlight of his powerboat racing career so far.
The Maltese sporting star – whose family runs the Chaudron boat-building business that manufactures the #44 Conam Yachts team’s Mercury-powered hull – has emerged as one of the stars of the season after joining reigning SuperSport champion Angelo Tedeschi’s team for 2008.  | #44 Conam Yachts SuperSport pilot Aaron Ciantar celebrates his home win in Malta - U.I.M Powerboat P1 World Championship - © |
The pair have dominated every race so far, and only missed out on a clean sweep of wins after receiving a jump-start penalty in the second race in the Italian season-opener. They now have a clear 100-point lead – equivalent to a race win – over the #07 VoomVoom.com team in the SuperSport championship standings.
'This is an incredibly proud moment for me,' said Ciantar immediately after his Sprint race win on Sunday. 'It was an absolutely fantastic race – the conditions were perfect for our boat and it’s great to be winning again, especially as it’s in Malta.'
VoomVoom lucky to survive Malta drama.
#07 VoomVoom.com pilot Gareth Williams has revealed that the team was lucky to even finish today’s SuperSport Sprint race in Malta – let alone finish in second place – after a dramatic spin-out midway through the event.
The British-based team was well on course for a solid podium finish in the event as it battled with the #38 Baia High Performance and #47 Silverline Buzzi Bullet boats, when it dramatically spun just two laps from the end of the race.
'We were very close to the #47 Silverline Buzzi Bullet boat, we hooked it into a corner and just spun,' Williams explained. '[Throttleman] Vee [Ganjavian] was thrown halfway out of the boat, but I grabbed him by the ankles, got him back in, we reconnected our kill switches and got started again.
'We’re not complaining, though. It was a fantastic race. In the end, we very nearly got second place and we’re still second in the championship, so we’re very happy.'
 | #07 VoomVoom.com’s Vahid Ganjavian and Gareth Williams - U.I.M Powerboat P1 World Championship - © |
Hull damage for #69 Honeyparty.com
A great Malta Grand Prix of the Sea weekend turned bad for the #69 Honeyparty.com Evolution class crew as they were forced to retire from today’s Sprint race with damage from the rough seas that caused numerous retirements up and down the field.
The British-based crew of pilot Mark Pascoe and throttleman Richard Carr finished third in Saturday’s Endurance race in their Chief-powered Skater hull, scoring their first points of their debut campaign in the process. They were forced to pull out of today’s Sprint, though, after cracks in the hull from the rough conditions of the Sprint race worsened significantly.
'We were running comfortably in third when we took a huge leap over a big wave and suddenly saw bits of fibreglass coming towards us,' said Pascoe. 'When the front end is flapping around, you decide it’s probably best to come in. It’s obviously very sad, but overall we’re pleased with how the weekend has gone. We knew we had the performance, we just had to overcome some of the mechanical problems, and we’ve proved we can do it with third place yesterday.'
http://www.powerboatp1.com/
by Angharad Gibbs/P1 Media
11:18 PM Sun 8 Jun 2008 GMT
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