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Life’s a beach as 2007 Zapcat National Championship gets underway |
| Tuesday,
05 June 2007 |
Bournemouth… blue skies, blue sea, golden sands and Zapcats!
Thirty-five of them all racing in the first Grand Prix of the
2007 Zapcat National Championships.
There were plenty of spills, a bit of barging – naughty – and
some seriously competitive racing as the teams shook off the
winter off-season and got into the swing of it all again.
With a sea fret shrouding the beach next to Bournemouth pier
during Saturday morning, practice was a little late getting
underway but, once it cleared, conditions were perfect for the
rest of the weekend – pretty flat with a bit of a swell towards
the end of the afternoons as the sea breeze picked up.
With thirteen rookie teams taking part in this first Grand Prix
of the season Race Control opted for deep-water starts for Round
1 on Saturday.
And they got their first chance to get the measure of each other
in Heat 1. Not a great start for Zapcat 50, Cheeky Chappy Racing,
who lost their co-pilot David Pay overboard. The two-lap restart
gave Happy Racing the chance to become the first winners of
the 2007 season but that was the happiest it got for Jason and
Matthew – finishing the Grand Prix one off the bottom of the
table with 22 championship points and a bit of work to do. Anything
is possible though!
Heat 2 and it was all looking good for Zapcat 18, Anger Management,
piloted by Nathan Williams with co-pilot Vicky Harris. They
were leading for the first three laps before they took a spill
and allowed last season’s Rookie of the Year, Pegasus Vortex
Racing to move in for the kill on the two-lap restart.
Mick Pritchard and Baz Minns proved they can cut it with the
big boys, moving up from fifth place at the end of Round 1 to
take second place on the podium at the end of the Grand Prix
with 160 championship points to their name.
The post-winter shakedown meant something of a nervy first session
of racing. The original plan to go for six-lap heats was revised
after down to five after the number of flips and spills in the
first few heats. But, as the afternoon wore on and the racers
settled into it again nerves calmed down, speeds picked up,
tactics improved and reigning champs and three-times title winners
Wet Willy, piloted by Martyn Willcox and co-pilot Will Evans
proved almost as unstoppable as they did last season. But that
wouldn’t be doing justice to David Paget and Tony Cooper in
Zapcat 7 Potential, who pushed them every inch of the way to
finish in second place.
A great day too for Elliott Herbert and Zac Cauldwell in Zapcat
16 Dirty Water. They dominated the afternoon session in Round
1 but complacency cost them in Heat 15 when they were disqualified
because Elliot hadn’t done up his lifejacket. That’ll learn
him.
Not such a great day for Zapcat favourites, Scaredy Cat. This
is Russell and Sandra Sidney’s sixth season racing Zapcat 40
on the Zapcats National Championship circuit, but 34 points
from Round 1 saw them finish in a relegation place and drop
into Division 2 for Sunday’s racing.
Also relegated at the end of Round 1, 12 Daddy’s Girl, 20 Dot
and Dab, 78 Island Racing and 15 ISP Developments. Zapcat 55
Vortex Racing II moved up to the dizzy heights of Division 1
at the end of Round 1 along with four rookie teams: 16 Dirty
Water, 9 Marin Subsea/Delta Jets, 57 Spiky Fish, and 42 Go Commando
II.
There were a few woolly heads around after the barbecue on Saturday
night, but that was the only cloud on an otherwise perfectly
blue horizon on Sunday morning as Round 2 dawned. And to spice
up the racing just that little bit more Race Control decided
6-lap heats and beach starts would be the order of the day.
A popped hull meant ISP Developments didn’t compete in Round
2, nor did Wet Willy, but that didn’t make the racing any less
competitive.
Heat 4 was particularly eventful, Anger Management, having been
DQ’d earlier in the heat, crashed into the buoy and flipped
which definitely put them out of it. Potential went into the
back of Zapcat 25 Rana Park and Dirty Water also got a little
too friendly with one of the buoys on the last lap.
Scaredy Cat’s Russell and Sandra put their bad start to the
season behind them and pulled some seriously good racing out
of the bag. Experience shone through in Heat 7 when they were
last off the beach by a long way on the restart. But some tight
manoeuvres and excellent turns of speed in the straights helped
them work their way up the field and into second place by the
time lap 4 came round.
Some good consistent racing brought its rewards and to a massive
cheer from the rest of the rest of the Zapcat Racers and the
crowd of supporters they took top spot on the podium for the
first time in their six years of racing. “Ecstatic doesn’t really
cover it!” Sandra told us afterwards.
Quiet consistency is clearly the key to success as fellow Zapcat
National Championship regulars Team Suffolk will tell you. They
were overall winners of the Bournemouth Grand Prix after finishing
Round 1 in fourth place. Although Zapcat 98 has raced for four
seasons now, the father-son pairing of Gregory and Kieron Richardson
is new for 2007 and they’re going to be hard to beat if first
impressions are anything to go by. They’ve been training hard
in the off-season and are determined to maintain their podium
position.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into the preparation this year,”
Gregory said. “We know what we’re doing and everything’s in
place. It’s Kieron’s first season but he’s really excellent.
He plays rugby too, so he’s nice and strong.”
Whatever Alex Hamilton has managed in his debut Formula 1 season,
Keiron Richardson has bettered on his Zapcats debut, winning
the Grand Prix on his first outing. So what does he think of
it all?
Simple. “I’m lovin’ it!” he beams.
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