Round 4 – Scandinavian Grand Prix – Oslo, Norway
BJORN AGAIN
* Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis return to winning ways in Spirit of Norway *
* Harib and Al Ghaith unhurt after second 100mph crash in the space of a week *
* American challengers denied place on podium by Hyatt and Victory 7 *
Reigning U.I.M Class 1 World Powerboat Champions, Bjorn Gjelsten and
Steve Curtis in Spirit of Norway, today made a dramatic return to the sort
of form that won them the 1998 crown, with a dominant near start-to-finish victory in
front of Gjelsten’s home crowd at the Scandinavian Grand Prix in Oslo, Norway.
However, it was the Dubai pairing of Khalfan Harib and Mohamed Al Ghaith in Victory 4 who shared the headlines once again, after spectacularly spinning and turning turtle at over 100mph in front of a huge crowd. Thankfully, the Dubai nationals emerged unscathed from the escape hatch on the underside of the boat, which was only reprieved from retirement this week to replace the catamaran that they wrote off in a high-speed crash at last weekend’s Norwegian Grand Prix in Arendal.
"It was the right place to win," said a euphoric Gjelsten afterwards in front of an estimated crowd of 100,000 people. "We finally got it together in a race. Steve did a heck of a job throttling the boat and even though we didn’t have the first corner, we made some good turns around the buoys to get ahead. As I’ve been saying all season, this boat is set up for the race and not Pole Position," added Gkelsten.
"We messed up on the first bend," admitted English throttleman Curtis later. "We were taken out by Edoardo (Polli) and couldn’t get back across his wake. Then we got crossed by Victory 4 and rode really high on his wake, to the point when I actually thought we might flip over. We managed to get alongside him on the outside coming into the turn, Bjorn threw it into the corner and we were away," continued the 35 year-old, who confirmed that they backed off on lap seven due to a trim problem.
Unharmed,
barring a little dented pride, throttleman Khalfan Harib later recounted the high-speed
flip that saw the Victory 4 crew crash out of a second consecutive race. "With this
boat we have to push really hard all the time," said Harib of the boat that is widely
considered to be reliable but lacking power. "Coming into the turn in front of the
crowd, there was not enough room between the buoy and our team mates. We turned sharply
and cut our speed, but we simply lost control and the boat just went," he added,
after admitting that the catamaran does not handle well through ‘dirty water.’
On a day when the recent form book was dramatically turned upside down, second placed Edoardo Polli and Laith Pharaon in Hyatt also appeared to have vanquished their long-standing reliability problems, after a monumental battle with Victory 7 and US1, who finished in third and fourth places respectively.
Throttleman Polli and driver Pharaon, who stole second early on with a brilliant maneuver on the inside of Ali Nasser and Randy Scism in Victory 7, held the Dubai boat off for the remainder of the race, despite a late charge that reduced the gap at the chequered flag to a mere four seconds.
"I was a little under propped, but it’s a good feeling to finish a race," said Polli afterwards. "We fought off a couple of boats behind us and tried to close on Spirit of Norway in the corners, but they had the edge" added Polli, who claims to have identified the gearbox problems that have plagued the team for so long. "We had a great start and were well aware that we had Matt Alcone behind us, but I wasn’t about to let him past this time," added team-mate Pharaon.
Meanwhile, Nasser and Scism in their new Seatek diesel engined Victory 7 boat, left Norway on a high after winning Saturday’s Pole Position run and extending their World Championship lead over sister boat Victory 4 to 14 points.
"This has to be one of the closest races in a long time," said American throttleman Scism afterwards. "We got pinched off a few times but made good progress, so I’m pretty happy," he added.
With the Championship now delicately poised and by no means decided, Gjelsten and Curtis in particular will travel to the next Grand Prix in Istanbul, Turkey on August 29, with high hopes that a concerted late charge might still see them retain their title.