F4 Powerboat World Championship - Curtis at the top

by Emma Slater on 28 Jun 2011 British powerboat racer Scott Curtis from Norwich has claimed his third win in the 2011 F4 World Championship campaign, taking a win on home waters at the British round of the championship held at Stewartby Watersports Club in Bedford (18-19 June).

Ten of the world’s top competitors battled it out for the all-important points in the campaign, with seven British competitors being joined by entries from France, Portugal and Hungary.

As the competition got underway Hungarian Richard Bodrogvolgyi flipped on the way to the first turn buoy crashing him out of the third Round of the World Championship and seeing him relegating from second in the championship overall down to fourth.

At the 31st lap restart Britain’s Scott Curtis got a sensational start taking the best line from his pole position on the grid to the turn buoy. Reigning World Champion Mark Williams sat in second with Matthew Palfreyman in third. The top three held their positions for the first 17 laps until Mark Williams clipped the top turn mark and got the rope caught around his propeller cutting it loose and causing another restart.

At the second restart Curtis again got the best start but this time current British National Champion Steve Batch was in second but on rounding buoy four his engine stalled and four times European F4 champion Pedro Fortuna overtook along with the rest of the fleet as he tried to get his engine to restart. Matthew Palfreyman again sat in third.

The three front runners held their positions until Matt Palfreyman submarined his boat on the fourth turn boat but recovered quickly and managed to retain his position. Stephen Batch who had found himself at the back of the fleet worked his way back up through the pack to take fourth.

But all credit had to go to Scott Curtis who dominated the whole weekend now putting a comfortable 20 point lead between himself and Portugal’s Pedro Fortuna in second before they head to Portugal for the final two rounds of the competition.

Round four of the Championship takes place at Caldas de Aregos / Resende in Portugal on 16-17 July.

1 61 Scott CURTIS GBR
2 31 Pedro FORTUNA POR
3 3 Brian BLOCK GBR
4 71 Richard BODROGVOLGYI HUN
4 49 Mark WILLIAMS GBR
6 37 Brian SHULVER GBR
7 25 Marie-Line HERICHER
8 99 Quentin DAILLY FRA
9 77 Matt PALFREYMAN GBR
10 75 Stephen BATCH GBR

*Boats number 22 and 25 received 0 points as they did not complete 90% of the number of laps of the winner

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