Defending world champion Laith Pharaon and Italy’s Edoardo Polli again underlined the power of their diesel-powered Bilboa cat yesterday (Saturday) by setting the fastest time of the season so far in Pole Position for the 1998 Russian Grand Prix in St Petersburg.
The Saudi/Italian partnership is proving adept at the one kilometre sprint – yesterday’s win was their second in succession in the 1998 UIM Class One World Offshore Championship. Averaging 145.05mph (233.58kmh), Bilboa outstripped runners-up Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis in Spirit of Norway, while Victory Team’s Khalfan Harib and Mohamed Al Ghaith claimed third in Victory 4.
The session, run on the confines of the River Neva against the magnificent backdrop of St Petersburg, Russia, is the most dramatic Pole of the Championship testing the nerves and skills of both driver and throttleman.
Only five of the listed entries completed the session. Four boats failed to make it to the start due to a variety of problems which included a damaged hull (Boat 12) sustained in practice, hydraulic problems (7), and visa entry problems (22), while two boats retired due to faulty transmission (5) and a blown turbo (14).
1ST Edoardo Polli (Italy) & Laith Pharaon (Saudi Arabia) – Bilboa
15.104 seconds. Top speed 233.58 km/h
Edoardo Polli "I am delighted we have clinched the pole position again – that’s both times this season. To run the pole position at such high top speeds in front of the famous Hermitage is absolutely fantastic.
"We will be making some changes to the boat for tomorrow. We anticipate that conditions will be choppy, so we will be fitting smaller propellers to give us improved acceleration although our top speed will be slower."
2nd Bjorn Gjelsten (Norway) & Steve Curtis (UK) - Spirit of Norway
15.510 seconds. Top speed 227.47 km/h
Bjorn Gjelsten "We had a fairly tough time today. It was really difficult to keep our boat in a straight line, so we lost a lot of speed. We changed the rudder before pole position but it was flexing so tomorrow we will put the old rudder back on again. We were running large propellers also, as the river is flat, but out in the open sea tomorrow we will run smaller ones.
Steve Curtis "Pole position was quite a challenge. We made some modifications in the hope that we would be faster than Bilboa, but it altered the direction of the boat. It felt like we were racing sideways! All our efforts went into keeping the boat straight. Needless to say, we will be working hard to improve the set-up."
3rd Khalfan Harib (UAE) & Mohamed Al-Gaith (UAE) – Victory 4
16.225 seconds. Top speed 217.44 km/h
Mohamed Al-Gaith "We set our quickest time on our second lap and we are really happy with our set up. It’s quite a strange sensation to be going at such speeds under a bridge – it looks like the bridge is rushing towards you and getting lower and lower."