Evolution champion – James Sheppard Q&A

The #99 Fountain Worldwide 1st4boats.com pilot talks about the team’s back-to-back title success in 2007 and 2008

They often say that defending a championship is harder than winning it first time out. What were your expectations going into 2009?
I actually had experience of this, racing for four years in the Honda championship from 2001 to 2004. We were lucky enough to win championship in first year of racing, so I thought that was great, I’d got it out of my system. I’ve won the title, so I can really relax next year. But, it was actually the opposite. Once you return for the next season, you don’t want to go backwards, you’ve got to win it again. We were lucky enough to win it again, then the third year we won it again. By the fourth year, there was so much pressure. We knew we weren’t going to be competing in the series again, so we wanted to go out as champions. It all went down to the very last race, and the last two corners to win it that year. Having won the Evolution title last year, you’d think the pressure would be off. But we’ve got a fantastic team who really want to win, and you have to win to stop yourself going backwards.

Last year, you and throttleman Craig Wilson seemed to set new levels of professionalism in Powerboat P1. The competition definitely seemed to step up their game this year as a result…
This year has been the hardest year I’ve ever had competing at this level of powerboat racing. Last year, in the rough races, everyone was taking care of their boats and running at their own pace. This year, you had to go absolutely flat out from start to finish, otherwise you’d come no where. It’s very hard racing, but that’s as it should be. The machinery is built to a high level of professionalism, but to be on the pace in these rough conditions for a whole hour is absolute butchery. The guys in the Fountain Worldwide team spend a lot of long hours preparing these boats to survive two hard races of an hour length. There’s a lot of hard work to do in two days.

Did you change your own approach in any way at all?
Obviously as a team, you know it’s important to finish. Last year we had four wins and one second. When it came to this championship, we came in a boat that was brilliantly prepared, but not quite on the money or perfectly dialled in, in terms of performance. We won the first four races just through reading the course correctly. We didn’t have the fastest boat, but reading the course correctly and not making any mistakes gave us the advantage for clear water in the front. Then the #69 Honeyparty.com boat broke down in Marseille, so that gave us that win.

But then the balance of the championship totally changed in Malta…
In Malta we were pleased to get second place. Giancarlo Cangiano’s boat [#88 Kiton Outerlimits] was a lot longer than ours, and those waves were big. It’s like  something short like a rollerskate going over a ploughed field, compared to something long like a tractor. You can put as much power in that roller skate as you like, but it’s never long enough to go over the bumps and ridges. You need something with that length and weight, and the #88 Kiton Outerlimits boat has that. So, we were really pleased to come second. Tunisia for us – as a team – was a disaster. Most of our problems stemmed from the engine hatch that came off. That knocked the headers, which gave us an overheating problem. We destroyed the engine just to come third in that race. In the second race, with a fresh engine, we were cruising for a win and then we had a problem with steering hose – something that has never happened before. In Vigo, we were comfortable with second on Saturday, but on Sunday we were leading for four laps when we had a pickup problem with a small piece of pipe on the fuel tank. In Portugal, we just had to make sure we finished ahead of #60 GFN Gibellato. Yesterday was just about coming third with the minimum about of speed and energy put into the boat so that we could be sure we could win the championship.

You’ve really gelled with the #99 Fountain Worldwide team and the boat over the last two years…
The boat has looked after us well for two years – it’s a good boat. In 2007, we missed the first race in Malta arrived in a car park in Italy with a fantastic team, but not necessarily all the right kit, because it had been put together in the winter of 2006. Craig knows what he’s doing. He’s done a lot of racing. I’ve done a lot of circuit racing in monohulls, so I knew how the boat would perform. All we had to do was form a relationship so we could push the boat as hard as possible. Mark [Wilson] is a fantastic team manager. He’s hugely respected in the team for his experience. What he says, goes. But he always asks our opinion on the racing side of things. From a professionalism point of view, you do it to the best of your ability and try to do it correctly, because competitors will catch up. You set a new level, but everyone this year has caught up. Between Mercury, Ilmor and the Seatek diesel it has been a great, competitive year. Yesterday we were probably cornering the marks by 10 or 20 metres. That’s not our usual style, but it wasn’t worth risking anything. The plan was to finish ahead of #60 GFN Gibellato, and that’s what we did.

Now you’ve won a second Evolution-class title, what are the plans for 2009?
If they want me to drive for them next year, I’ll be absolutely delighted to sit alongside Craig again in the boat – we get on so well. As long as they keep asking me, I’m theirs.