Mirsky Racing Team defeats Azzurra at Sunseeker Australia Cup

by Kinley Fowler on 29 Nov 2009
In an ambtious move, Mirsky Racing Team elected to race Louis Vuitton champions Team Azzurra, helmed by Italian Francesco Bruni in the quarter finals of the Sunseeker Australia Cup.

The first to three point quarter final series went to 5 races with MRT finishing with 3 wins to Azzura's 2.

The Italians came out firing early on showing the local team why they had been crowned champions in Nice last week.
With a fairly one sided course Bruni gained the advantage off the line in the first two races to comfortably sail to victory.

The Mirsky Racing Team composed themselves to come out in the third race to pick the shifts and defend an upwind assult by Azzura to keep them in the game.

Race four saw fireworks as Azzura was awarded a penalty on the first upwind for tacking too close to MRT, they maintained a slight lead throughout the race and chose to complete their penalty right on the finish line, unfortunately for Azzurra, MRT was hot on their heels, and as Azzurra was half way through their turn they collided with MRT 't-boning' them and resulting in the Italians receiving another penalty awarding the race to the Aussies.

The damage caused in the incident also saw Azzurra deducted a point for causing serious damage. This put the scores at 2-1 in favour of MRT.

With one more win needed to proceed to the next round, MRT dominated the prestart and held their lead throughout the course to finish off Azzurra and eliminate them from the competition.

'It's great to be on the winning side of such an experienced and professional team, they made us work for those last three races and to go through to the next stage in front of a home crowd is such thrill and we hope there will be more people down on Perth Waters tomorrow for the semi finals and finals' said Torvar Mirsky whilst enjoying the
'MRT Floating Bar' on Barrack St jetty.

Tomorrow MRT will choose their opponent in the semi finals out of local Keith Swinton and Black Swan Racing who knocked out current world champions Team Pindar today, world number one Adam Minoprio or triple gold medalist Ben Ainslie.

Tomorrows racing promises to be a spectacle so if you can make it down to the Barrack St jetty tomorrow around 1pm to support Western Australia's local team where racing should kick off immediately.

MRT def Azzurra 3-1 (point deduction to Azzura)
Black Swan Racing def Team Pindar 3-1
ETNZ BlackMatch def Team French Spirit 3-0
Team Origin def Waka Racing 3-1

5th Team Pindar
6th Azzura
7th Team French Spirit
8th Waka Racing
9th CYCA
10th KA Match