Pilot Blog - Vee Ganjavian

The throttleman of the VoomVoom.com team’s #07 Microlink PC SuperSport class boat talks about his hopes of catching #44 Conam Yachts in the chase for the title in Spain and Vigo

We’ve had quite a good year so far, really. We’ve got a relatively new team and a new throttleman in the shape of Gareth Williams, who has taken over from Charlie Williams-Hakwes from last year. (I thought it was probably a good idea to keep the surnames as similar as possible to avoid any confusion!)

Gareth has come into the team with a wealth of knowledge from RIB racing. We’ve had to learn to drive and operate together, and that has taken one or two races to really gel, but the relationship in the cockpit is working fantastically now. He’s had a lot of fantastic input into the team, and we get on really well out of the boat.

We tested together four times together before the season, which – by anyone’s standards isn’t enough. But he’s a complete professional. He can read exactly what I’m going to do behind the wheel, and can throttle accordingly. We’ve also got an excellent group of people working behind us, with the mechanics and team manager, which means we went into the season with well-prepared boat and team structure.

The season got off to a great start in San Benedetto del Tronto in Italy with second place and a win, which gave us an early lead to the championship. Obviously – as a racer – you go into any season aiming to win, end of story. But, we were aware that we’re still a new team and it’s still the first season working together for Gareth and myself.

We had a lot of teething problems from last year, which we resolved for 2008, but there’s always work you can do to improve, to get to the front of the pack and then stay there. We’ve managed to keep that momentum going, and thanks to some good racing, solid reliability and a string of good results, we’re a solid second in the championship going into the final two rounds of the year.

The biggest problem was our retirement with technical problems in the Sprint race at the Marseille Grand Prix of the Sea in France. That didn’t just cost us a good crop of points in the race, but also the 50-point reliability bonus awarded in Tunisia. That means we could be right up with the #44 Conam Yachts team right now. We’re currently 190 points behind them, with two rounds and four races to go. But, with at least 400 points up for grabs, there’s everything to play for.

There was also our dramatic incident in the Sprint race in Malta. Rounding one corner, the boat took a little bit of a tank slapper, almost throwing me out of the boat. As you’ll see from the television footage, we’re not strapped into the boat for safety reasons, and Gareth had to grab hold of my leg to prevent me going completely overboard. It was all fairly scary stuff, but – thanks to some quick thinking – we were able to get going again and not lose too much time.

During the summer we’ve done quite a lot of work on the set-up of the boat and I’m confident that it’s running better than ever – better even than the manufacturer expected, so we’re obviously doing something right. We had a little last minute hitch last week when we damaged one of the propellers. As you know, if you damage one propeller, you have to replace the pair as they work in conjunction with each other. That can be quite expensive and time consuming, but – thanks to Scott at Mercury – we were able to get a new set sent to us by FedEx before we left for Spain.

There has been some incredibly close racing in the SuperSport class this year. The #38 Baia High Performance and #47 Silverline Buzzi Bullet boats have both been fast and we’ve been very close in terms of performance, but have had their problems.

One of the reasons why I – and a lot of the other teams – are in the SuperSport class is that it’s a more predominantly driver skill-led class. The boats are production-based, and the rules with the 85mph speed limit and the power-to-weight ratio are very tightly controlled to keep things close and to keep development costs under control. But that means that the crews in the cockpit can really make a difference – especially when it comes to keeping close to the top speed limit. There’s a lot of controversy from some people as to whether 85mph is too slow, but it makes it more challenging for the drivers and keeps developments and costs under control.

To a certain extent in the final two rounds, we’re counting on whether it’s time for #44 Conam Yachts’ luck to change. They’ve had a trouble-free season so far, and everybody’s luck has to change at some point. If they have a problem on a Saturday in Spain, then that could be enough – we’d be almost neck and neck with three races to go. I’ve got a great deal of respect for #44 Conam Yachts and how they’ve been maximising that as best they can. But, as I say, we’ve got a new set-up for the boat that should make a significant difference for the final two races of the year. We’re really looking forward to it.