Offshore racing Champions to contest Australian races

by Bob Wonders on 21 Apr 2010 Steve Curtis, MBE, the ‘winningest' throttleman in offshore powerboat racing history and his equally skilled driver, Qatar's Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani, will contest two rounds of Australia's 2010 Offshore Superboat Championships.

The pair will contest the North Queensland rounds of the championships in Mackay (June 26/27) and Townsville (July 3/4).

They will be accompanied by Abdullah Al-Sulaiti, another Middle East ace with Class 1 victories and podiums to his credit; a marine engineer by profession, he will not be taking part in the races, but will be on hand as part of the Qatar team.

The visit by Curtis and Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani represents a coup for the sport in Australia.

Steve Curtis, 45, has been described as the sport's 'most celebrated racer'; he has won more GP events (40) and Pole Positions (45) than any other competitor, collecting along the way an astonishing eight Class 1 World Championships.

He has also claimed four European and four Middle East championships trophies.

Curtis actually began his racing career on two wheels, reigning as a schoolboy and junior motocross champion in the United Kingdom.

In 1982 he moved to the United States to race powerboats, primarily in US classes Pro Stock and Modified V.

He returned to Europe and began Class 1 racing in 1992.

With legendary Norwegian driver, Bjorn Gjelsten and the boat which became a legend in itself, ‘Spirit of Norway', Curtis emerged as the greatest throttleman in offshore history. He was Class 1 World Offshore Champion in 1985, 1987, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 1993 and 2007 he finished second in the Class 1 World titles and in 1992, 2000 and 2001 finished third.

He won the Class 1 European Championship in 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2007 and the Middle East Championship in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007.

Other honours followed; in 2002 Curtis received the prestigious Segrave Trophy, named for the legendary, late Sir Henry Segrave and presented to the British national who has accomplished the most outstanding feat on land, sea or in the air. (see footnote).

In 2003 Curtis was named the UK's Yachtsman of the Year and in 2006 on the occasion of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11's 80th birthday was presented with his MBE (Member of the British Empire).

When he's not racing, Curtis is involved with the family business Cougar Marine, established by his equally well-known father, Clive Curtis and the late James Beard.

Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani in 2004 became the first Qatari to win a Class 1 GP.

He claimed his second victory the following season and went on to win the European championship the same year.

In just 45 starts he has gained 19 podium finishes, three of them pole position victories.

In 2003 he was elected president of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF) and formed Team Qatar 96, celebrating the team's establishment with a pole position win and a podium finish at Dubai.

He was European champion in 2005 and claimed third outright in the Class 1 World championships in 2005 and 2007.

The ‘champion due' is expected to arrive in Australia early in June.

Footnote: The Segrave Trophy awarded to Curtis in 2002 is named for the late Sir Henry Segrave, first person to ever hold both the land and water world speed records.

Sir Henry was also the first person to be officially timed at more than 200mph (320km/hr) on land.

A graduate of the famous Eton College, Sir Henry also showed his mettle during World War 1 when he served as a fighter pilot, being wounded twice in action over the Western Front.
Post war, in 1923, he became the first Briton to win a Grand Prix in a British automobile, claiming the Spanish GP in a Sunbeam.

In 1929 he set his final world land speed record in the fabled ‘Golden Arrow', clocking the then unheard of speed at 231.45mph (372.46km/hr) on Daytona Beach.

Immediately after, Segrave went to Miami and a match race against the legendary Garfield Wood, the American who was the first man in history to reach 100mph on water.

Segrave won the match race, inflicting on Gar Wood his first defeat in nine years.

At the age of just 33, Sir Henry Segrave, knighted a few months previously for his array of accomplishments, was killed when his boat, Miss England 11 crashed during a world water speed record run on Lake Windermere.