GJELSTEN AND CURTIS REIGN SUPREME
Spirit of Norway wins final round
Norway’s Bjorn Gjelsten and Britain’s Steve Curtis topped a remarkable season with a dominant performance, to win the Emirates Grand Prix by over a minute ahead of Jolly Motor’s Lamberto Leoni and Massimo Lippi in second place with Randy Scism and Ali Nasser in Victory 7, third.
With their World title already secured and under no pressure, Gjelsten and Curtis further demonstrated the capabilities of their Lamborghini powered, Tencara catamaran, Spirit of Norway, destroying the competition, completing the 12 lap 126Nm race in 76 and a half minutes at an average speed of 184.05 km/h.
In doing so, Gjelsten and Curtis took their season tally of wins to four and further stamped their names in the record books, achieving podium finishes in every round of the World Championship and the Pole Position Championship - 16 in total.
"That’s a great way to end a great season," said Steve Curtis. "We had a fantastic battle with Khalfan, and you have to feel for him when he went out. We shot off well and were running really strong, with Bjorn literally throwing the boat into the bends! It was going to be a tough run and if Victory 4 had kept going, I think they would have beaten us."
Team owner and driver Gjelsten, was full of praise for his team and the outstanding talent of his British throttleman. " Really Steve has done a fantastic job this season and I believe he is the best throttleman in the business. I can’t remember once this season being out of shape. It has been a season of consistency. We have a great team who paid attention to detail. We have remained systematic and focused and it paid off."
Heading the race from the start, Gjelsten and Curtis soon came under pressure from Victory 4 and on lap 5 with conditions worsening, the Victory crew of Harib and Al-Ghaith caught and started to pull away. In their wake, Jolly Motor and the chasing boats had no answer. But as they crossed the line to start lap 7, they were forced to retire with mechanical trouble leaving Spirit of Norway to enjoy a trouble free run to the line.
Second place honours on the day were enough to give a delighted Massimo Lippi his first ever podium placing in the World Championship. "Today we didn’t have the speed, but I am very happy. This is my first ever podium finish in the World Championship and third is not bad."
Behind Jolly Motor, third place for Victory 7 was enough to give them second overall in the Championship. "I am extremely happy because of the age of the boat. Dependability was the secret and the reason we are here and my thanks go to the guys. It stopped twice on us during the race which meant we had to run harder than it appeared."
But overall the season belongs to Spirit of Norway who ended the season as they began – on the top step of the podium.