Shelley Jory - 06/05/08
The #77 Lucas Oil Evolution class pilot is ready for her first season at Powerboat P1's top level
Well, the 2008 Powerboat P1 season – my first in the series, and my first in the Evolution class – is almost here. I’ve just finished three days of pre-season testing in the #77 Lucas Oil Mercury-powered Skater in Torquay, England. We’ve been trying out different propellers and moving weight around in the boat to get the set-up just right for the first race in San Benedetto del Tronto in Italy.
I’m really happy with how it has gone. The Skater runs really beautifully. It’s very even and steady on the water. Team owner Nigel Hook is a fantastic throttleman so he keeps it nicely in line. This has been my first real experience of a Powerboat P1 boat. I’ve previously been racing in the Honda Formula 4-Stroke series. In my Honda boat I had 225hp; now I’ve got more than 1400hp. I’ve also gone from 28ft in length for the boat to 39ft. It’s a totally different ball game.
People have noted – understandably – that I’m the first woman to race in Powerboat P1’s Evolution class, but those inside the sport find it more significant that I’m the first person to have gone straight from the Honda series into Powerboat P1’s Evolution class. I’m not the first to have left the Honda series to race with Nigel, though. Reigning Evolution world champion James Sheppard did precisely that in 2006 and together he and Nigel won the Super Vee world championship.
I know Nigel rates the Honda series highly. All 20 boats on the start line are identical, which makes the racing very hard and aggressive. The boats themselves are quite flighty little things, too, and fairly hard to control. So it teaches you valuable skills. Nigel and I have known of each other for many years, and he watched me race at Cowes last year. He knew I was selling my Honda boat. My intention was to have a year off and carry on commentating with the Powerboat P1 TV crew, which I’d thoroughly enjoyed doing last year.
That was the plan, but Nigel said: “Don’t take a year off. Come racing with me. I’ve seen you race at Cowes, and I know you can race a Honda boat. Are you up for it?” I took all of about three seconds to say yes…
My pre-season preparation has gone extremely well. I’ve been working with my personal trainer – James Seilo – on my core stability and neck and arm strength. James has been my trainer for three years, and I really felt the benefits of it in the Honda series. Now I’m in the #77 Lucas Oil boat, the body takes a lot of strain because you’re harnessed in and the g-force is quite strong when you hit a big wave at 100mph. You can’t afford to feel at all tired or weak because, in Powerboat P1, you’ve got to be 100 per cent focused all the time. So fitness is vital.
I’ve also had to go back to my navigational skills. I started racing as navigator, but for the past four years in the Honda my co-driver Libby Keir did all the navigating. So I’ve had to re-learn my Raymarine GPS. In fact, I had a one-to-one session yesterday with Raymarine technician Jason Sidaway. Because it’s so fast and furious in the boat, you don’t have time to [think] which button to press. You’ve got to know. I also plot the course on a chart and make a simple drawing of it – the basic course shape and colours of the marks – which I have in the cockpit, as well as our two C80 GPS units.
So, yes, I’m really looking forward to the first race. That’s when I’ll really get to know the boat because I’ll have a whole hour in it being thrown around, have other boats crawling all over me and really be put under pressure in the corners. The first race is all I’m really thinking about at the moment.
As for the championship, I’d absolutely love to win it in my first year. Who wouldn’t? But if I can finish it in the top three, then I’ll be happy. I’ve been on the podium for the past four years in the Honda – and I don’t want to get down yet.