Qatar 96 claims two from two in Offshore Superboat Championships

by Bob Wonders on 1 Jul 2010 Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani (driver) and crack throttleman Steve Curtis, MBE aboard 'Qatar 96' have dominated Class 1 in the second round of the Australian Offshore Superboat Championships by winning both races in the two-race format staged off Mackay, North Queensland.

The dual victories have taken the visiting pair to the top of the championship points table, leading Steve Searle's ‘Acme' (second place in both races) by 125 points.

‘Trojan Steel', with Simon Isherwood and Colin Craven aboard, came home in third place in race one, but race two proved to be a tough encounter for all concerned with ‘Trojan Steel' and both Maritimo boats, ‘Mustang' and ‘Maritimo' all failing to finish. Luck was not present at the meeting, with seven boats in various classes failing to finish and two unable to start due to mechanical problems.

‘Team 3' and ‘The Good guys' share the lead in the Supercat Lite class, both on 850 points; ‘The Good Guys' earned 475 points for the team's first round win at Newcastle when ‘Team 3' did not compete. With a second place at Mackay in race one (behind Global Racing) and a victory in race two, ‘Team 3' was able to surge to an equal class lead. Team owner Adam Gilbert said the crew proved an ideal pairing in their first race together.

'We've just finished 800 hours of racing in New Zealand and finished second outright in our class, so it has been terrific to get racing again,' Adam said. 'It was the first time together for the ‘Team 3' crew at Mackay, Steve Nugent and Travis Thompson and they worked together superbly,' he added.

Antony de Fina and Nigel Craven, aboard ‘Saracen' had the wood on arch rival ‘SUV Dodge Ram' (Cameron Davis and Nigel Craven) winning both races. ‘Kwozzy 2', Jim Harris and Adam Nicolls aboard came home third in race one, but failed to finish in race two. There was some exciting racing in Supercat Outboard Lite between ‘FGI' and ‘Berwicks'.

‘Berwicks', Ian Harris and Graham Fraser in the cockpit, claimed race one honours from ‘FGI', but ‘FGI', Mick Walker and Gary Smith at the controls, reversed the order in race two. ‘Grumpy Mongrel' (Peter Jack and Michael Ethell) finished third in both races. It was a memorable weekend for all the wrong reasons for Offshore Superboat Championships chairman Paul Gibbs.

Gibbs and his co-driver, Paul Fowlds, failed to get their boat, ‘Hog's Breath' away in both races. Tom Barry-Cotter and throttleman Pal Virik Nilsen also experienced a weekend they'd prefer to forget. Aboard the Maritimo boat ‘Mustang', the pair failed to finish in race one and could not get the boat started in race two.

'All our problems revolved around the supercharger, with slipping belts the primary cause of our engine overheating when load was applied,' Tom explained. In race one, the crew had narrow escape from a blow over; 'We were closing up on ‘Qatar 96' when a helicopter hovered above it and the blast from the rotors hit us as we came off a wave,' Tom explained. 'We virtually stood on our transom, but fortunately came down right side up.'

The Maritimo team's second boat, ‘Maritimo' crewed by Ross Willaton and Peter McGrath, suffered similar supercharge problems. Both boats are now in Townsville with crew chief McGrath and engine builder Kurt Davies now busily engaged in preparing the boats for next weekend's round, also scheduled for a two-race format.

Race director Russell Embleton said the meeting was a success despite the number of mechanical problems. 'Mackay was a new venue for us, but it worked very well indeed and as far as I'm aware all the crews enjoyed it,' he said. 'The management at the Mackay Marina were most cooperative and hopefully this will become a permanent venue.

'An estimated 5000-plus spectators turned up for race one and all seemed to return for the second race, so we could not have been happier with that,' he added.

Championships chairman Paul Gibbs was delighted with the attendance of Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and Steve Curtis, who has won an astonishing eight World Offshore titles. 'It was exciting to have them here and they mixed in well with all the team and proved to be great ambassadors for themselves and for offshore racing,' Gibbs said.

Sheikh Hassan is president of the Qatar Marine Sport Federation and has already taken back-to-back victories with Curtis in Maryland and Florida in the US Offshore series. During their Australian campaign, the pair will be using a MerCruiser-powered boat prepared for them by Bill Barry-Cotter's Maritimo Offshore Race Team.

Sheikh Hassan said he and Curtis were involved in a 'really close tussle' with the ‘Mustang' boat in the opening laps of race one. 'We were lying second to ‘Mustang' until the Maritimo boat retired with engine problems and we took the lead and held it to the finish,' he said.

The two men only needed to refuel between races and led from start to finish to take out race two. 'We have always had an excellent relationship with the Maritimo team and we've shown here that on a level playing field we can be very competitive,' Sheikh Hassan added.

Full results:

Race One, Class 1: ‘Qatar 96' 1, ‘Acme', 2, Trojan Steel' 3.
Supercat Lite: ‘Global Racing'1, ‘Team 3' 2, Mazlin', 3.
Supercat Outboard: ‘Saracen', 1, ‘SUV Dodge Ram', 2, ‘Kwozzy 2', 3.
Supercat Outboard Lite: ‘Berwicks', 1, ‘FGI', 2, ‘Grumpy Mongrel', 3.

Race Two, Class 1: ‘Qatar 96', 1, ‘Acme', 2.
Supercat Lite: ‘Team 3', 1, ‘The Good Guys', 2.
Supercat Outboard: ‘Saracen', 1, ‘SUV Dodge Ram', 2.
Supercat Outboard Lite: ‘FGI', 1, ‘Berwicks', 2, ‘Grumpy Mongrel', 3.

Championship Points: ‘Qatar 96' 950, ‘Acme' 825, ‘Aegean/Mustang' 550, ‘The Good Guys' 544, ‘Maritimo' 525, SUV Dodge Ram' 518, ‘Team 3' 502, ‘Global Racing' 394, ‘Trojan Steel'375, ‘Saracen'. 372.