RYA British Powerboat GP F2 Championship - Malcolm Goodman victorious

by Emma Slater on 27 Sep 2012 RYA British Powerboat GP F2 Championship 2012 was held during 22nd and 23rd September. JPL Racing’s Malcolm Goodman (30) from St Helens in Lancashire secured his second British Powerboat Racing title of the year last weekend, when he claimed the F2 Championship for the second consecutive year.

It hasn’t been all plain sailing for the Powerboat Racer as he nearly failed to make it to the final round of the Championship. Emergency repairs were needed on the boat following two spectacular crashes at the final round of the UIM F2 World Championships in Nottingham the previous weekend, which saw him crash out of the competition leaving his British title in question.

Despite a mixed bag of results throughout the season and technical failures at the beginning of the season by the time the 2012 Powerboat GP RYA British Sprint Championship came around, 4-5 August, Goodman seemed to have put his problems behind him as he secured the 2012 title after taking two of three heat wins.

Goodman’s season then took him to Auronzo, Italy for the 2012 UIM F2 European Championships where he proved his skill on the international circuit taking the silver medal behind the F2 World Champion Erik Stark of Sweden.

However it was the next event in Nottingham that nearly cost Goodman the 2012 British Championship title. Whilst racing at the final round of the UIM World F2 Championships, when the World Series returned to the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham for the first time in over a decade, Goodman spectacularly crashed out of the competition not once, but twice.

The first saw him perform aerial acrobatics as he barrel rolled 360 degrees during match racing against the World Champion Erik Stark. Gasps went out from the crowd followed by rapturous applause as Malcolm emerged from the boat unscathed and drove the boat out of the racing line. But further disaster struck for the European silver medallist as they headed into the first corner of the Grand Prix race. Another boat moved over to take the turn and Malcolm clipped the boat and once more was sent barrel rolling out of the race, again Malcolm was unscathed but the same couldn’t be said about his boat.

With considerable damage to the boat Malcolm and the team had their work cut out for them to even make the final round of the British Championship just four days later. But as qualifying got underway their hard work paid off, with Goodman taking pole position for the weekends racing.

But there was further drama to unfold in the championship as the first heat got underway. This time it was JPL Racing’s Ian Andrews who crashed out at the right hand turn with Ian Wright and Paul Balfour also damaging their boats in the early stages and forcing them to withdraw from the race. The race was restarted but with Swans on the racing line another red flag saw the heat void and mounting pressure on Goodman and Alan Marshall as they vied for the championship win.

Newcomer to the F2 Class Scott Curtis got a fantastic start in the second heat but Goodman powered past to secure the heat win, with Marshall taking third.

So it would all go down to the final race of the season.

Once more Curtis got the best start off the line as Goodman seemed to get left behind, but as they came out of the first turn they were neck and neck. Heading round to past the start jetty Goodman started to edge away from Curtis, and despite Curtis battling back Goodman took the chequered flag first also securing the Grand Prix win and his second title of the year securing the F2 British Championship. Alan Marshall took double silver in both the Grand Prix and Championship.

Securing both the 2012 Powerboat GP RYA British F2 Championship and Sprint Championship Malcolm Goodman reflected on the past season. 'It’s been a great season but we’ve had some mixed results. At the beginning of the season we had a new boat and set up to get used and we faced a few gremlins but we put that behind us, securing the Sprint Title and then silver at the Europeans things we’re looking good.'

He continued 'Nottingham was disastrous and I’m still not sure how the first incident happened but it nearly cost me the British Title as well! The team worked really hard to get me back out on the water for the final round and although there was little between Alan and me in the standings, I knew if I focussed and could take the win I could take the title for the RYA website