F250 European Championship title - Turner grabs gold in Europe

by Emma Slater on 19 Aug 2013 Wayne Turner (26, Beccles) has won the prestigious Hydroplane F250 European Championship title after a hard fought campaign over the last three months, which has seen his team travel thousands of miles across Europe to compete.

The championship bid, which started back in May, has seen plenty of highs and low points for Wayne as he battled with technical issues, which seemed determined to scupper his championship hopes.

The weekend of the 10 - 11 August saw Team Turner travel to Bitterfeld in Germany for the fourth and final event in championship series and with just a few points separating the top three that included Wayne, Lembit Aaslav-Kaasik from Estonia and David Loukotka from the Czech Republic, it was anybody’s guess as to who would take the title.

Extreme weather conditions greeted the teams in Germany, with high winds threatening to cancel the event. Thankfully a small window of opportunity arose when the wind dropped sufficiently to allow the officials to start the qualifying session that determines the all-important start grid positions.

Knowing that the wind speeds could change at any moment, Wayne wasted no time in going full throttle to complete a perfect lap of the 1500m circuit posting a 45.14 time, ahead of Lembit’s 45.39 and Hungary’s Peter Bodor with a 45.70 lap.

With the weather deteriorating again, the event was postponed until the next day.

Bad weather once again greeted the teams on Sunday and they had to wait patiently for the wind to subside enough to allow the officials to start the race. Thankfully by the afternoon, there was enough improvement for the event to get underway, although Lembit Aaslav-Kaasik was unfortunately injured during the ‘sighting’ lap and forced to retire after hitting a rogue wave and nose-diving his boat leaving him unable to start the race.

The rest of the competitors lined up on the start grid and the race soon got underway which saw Wayne lead from start to finish closely followed Peter Bodor and David Loukotka who were all eagerly snapping at his heels.

On taking the win in Germany and being awarded the European Championship title Wayne commented: ‘I am absolutely thrilled to finally win the European title after many hours of hard work and preparation from the team. I am extremely proud to have won the championship for the UK and I would like to extend my good wishes to Lembit for a quick recovery.

'I would also like to thank my sponsors, family and friends for all of their support as it really does make a huge difference.'

Wayne now turns his attentions to securing the RYA O/Hydro British Championship title where is he currently top of leaderboard with the final being held at the Powerboat GP Bedford Grand Prix on the 21 - 22 September RYA website