Short courses help improve Powerboat P1 show

Wednesday 13 August 2008

The #22 Big Sergio rounds the start/finish buoy in Tunisia

Powerboat P1 Racing and Event Director Andy Hindley has backed the championship’s move to shorter, tighter race courses this year, but has admitted that the course layouts may need to be looked at in a bid to help teams improve their reliability – particularly in the top-level Evolution class.

The move to shorter, tighter race courses has been part of a number of initiatives introduced this year in a bid to help further improve the show for fans. This includes bringing the courses close to the shore so that fans get a better view of the racing action. Although the move to shorter courses has generally been positive, Hindley has said they’re always looking at ways to improve things further for everyone.

“Shorter courses are better for the show, but are much harder to drive,” Hindley said. “It’s easy to go flat-out on a straight – very few people can make a big mistake racing in a straight line on a flat sea. The difficult bit is going round corners – firstly, going fast round them on your own, then fast when you’ve got two or three boats together.

“We also have to consider the effect of the courses on reliability. Is it accelerating out of the tight corners that is breaking the boats, or is it the fact that they’re flat out, pushing the engines to the limits, on the straights? We’re trying to put together a balance for the courses that has a reasonable distance on the straights, but also puts on a great show.”