Bad Tunisian weekend for Evo frontrunners

Sunday 13 July 2008

The #99 Fountain Worldwide 1st4boats.com team finished third in the Tunisian Evolution Endurance race

The Tunisian Grand Prix of the Sea weekend proved to be an overseas trip to forget for the two leading boats in the Evolution title chase. The reigning champion #99 Fountain Worldwide 1st4boats.com team and the #88 Kiton Outerlimits squad both struggled with reliability problems in what proved to be a real event of attrition for all the team’s in Powerboat P1’s top class.

The #88 Kiton Outerlimits crew – with weekend recruit Abla Lassoued – scored a strong second place in Saturday’s Endurance race, but failed to finish the Sunday Sprint race with an engine problem. They’re now just 10 points ahead of the third-placed #60 GFN Gibellato team in the championship points standings. That wasn’t their only problem.

“On the first lap, we hit a big wave as were rounding the buoys and we went straight into it,” said pilot Giancarlo Cangiano. “We could still see, but it was like a parachute for two laps. Obviously, it’s disappointing not to finish, but – overall – nothing has changed for me as the Fountain team had problems as well. It’s only a lost opportunity.”

Things weren’t so positive for the #99 Fountain Worldwide crew, who finished third in the Saturday Endurance race, but were hit by steering failure in the Sunday Sprint race. They’ve now seen their point advantage drop to 70 points, although they potentially have a 50-point engine change bonus and a 100-point penalty from earlier in the season still to gain under appeal.

“We had a major steering problem,” said pilot James Sheppard. “We tried to continue, but it was just uncontrollable. It’s a huge disappointment for the team, because they worked so hard through the night to change the engine and repair the broken engine hatch from yesterday. It was great that were able to start the race fighting at the front, but the steering just got heavier and heavier until it was unsafe to continue, even if we were aiming for the 70 per cent. I guess this is the beginning of the fightback.”