Australia to host two UIM World Championships
by Bob Wonders on 9 Nov 2011
World champ Troy Marland whips 'Madness' through a turn on his way to the chequered flag. - UIM world champs All Race Photography .
Australia will be the beneficiary of what has been described as 'the biggest opportunity ever delivered to powerboat racing' next year with two Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM) World Championships to be decided.
In 2010 Queenslander Troy Marland was crowned World Champion in Unlimited Displacement when his state-of-the-art boat ‘Madness’ crushed all its opposition to claim the crown. Marland will be ‘on deck’ to defend his title in 2012, but adding fuel to the fire will be the inaugural staging of the World Championship for 6.0-litre Displacement.
Victorian-based Fastwater Promotions has been the driving force behind securing two UIM (the world governing body for powerboat racing) titles for Australia.
The 6.0-litre class was registered with the UIM in October during the UIM General Assembly held in Abu Dhabi.
A unanimous ‘yes’ vote from fifty-five member nations and acceptance of Fastwater Promotions to become the ‘official’ promoter of the class was indeed a proud moment for Fastwater’s Tony Walsh and Angela Sawka.
'Our aim is and always will be to promote powerboat racing and to continue to offer world championships to the competitive classes,' Tony Walsh declared.
'We believe it will dramatically assist all forms of powerboat racing in Australia and overseas and will certainly offer Australian teams the opportunity to achieve world class status,' he added.
The 2012 UIM World Powerboat Series, as the dual world championships have been ‘christened’, is set for 12-13 and 19-20 of May.
Opening round is scheduled for the Mildura Ski Club venue on the Murray River, Victoria; round two is set for the Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith.
Negotiations are currently underway with various free-to-air television networks and it is expected the event will reach audiences in Europe, USA, South Africa, Asia and New Zealand.
To add some ‘icing to the cake’, Fastwater Promotions is also forming the inaugural Asia Pacific Cup for the SST 120 class, normally viewed as Formula 2.
Invitations to compete have already been sent to various nations to take part in the first-ever Asia Pacific Cup, which Fastwater Promotions says will give the event 'true international flavour.'
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