Announced today, Zapcat Racing has made the bold decision to remove race fees for all entrants to the 2012 Zapcat National Championship.

This shrewd move puts the class well ahead of any other and ultimately means racers will pay less than £5 per race after they have paid their annual class membership and RYA race license fees!

“It is very simple we have a couple of long-distance venues scheduled for this summer and we want to give every team the chance to compete in all Grand Prix events as well as ensure that sponsors and spectators are rewarded with as many teams as possible competing so far from home.” said Event Organiser, Martin Jupp.

Whilst most Powerboat Racers are in training for the summer season or enjoying the off season with their boats and ski’s put firmly away for the winter, six times World Jet Ski Champion and the World’s ranked number one James Bushell is still hungry for more titles, in what some would describe as an already the perfect year for him.
 
Britain’s James Bushell (27) from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, has been racing Jet Ski’s for just over nine years now and has already racked up 33 titles including six World Championships and over 20 RYA British titles and is currently competing in Dubai at the UAE Jet ski Championship for his 34th.

With less than 200 days until the start of the most gruelling RYA Powerboat Race, the 2012 Round Britain race (RB12), preparations are well under way.
 
Taking place on the 21 June 2012, for the first time ever, this unique marathon event will see 50 boats, 50 cars, and 50 aircraft compete simultaneously against each other in their disciplines in the 2012 Round Britain Race.
 
The race itself is 10 gruelling legs over 10 days which will start and finish at the Olympic Sailing Venue, the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy.

Matt Palfreyman of Aughton, Lancashire continued in his battle for the 2011 Eurofin Trophy F4S championship title in the penultimate event of the season in Abu Dhabi (08-09 December) .

Heading into the event, the 19 year old Team Atlantic driver sat in second in the Championship behind Team Sweden's Bimba Sjoholm who had a nine point lead on the British youngster.

Matt qualified for the first of the events races in second position.  From his second position on start line he got an amazing start and clinched first place by the first turn. He held off tough competition from the rest of the field to maintain his lead throughout the race.

Two of Britain’s talented young RYA Powerboat Racers, Anya Colley (19), from Nottingham and Matthew Palfreyman (19) from Lancashire have both received special recognition awards for their participation in the sport adding to their ever increasing list of accolades.
 
Anya, the 2011 British RYA Jetsport IJSBA Ski Champion, British RYA Jetsport Ski Limited Champion and 2011 IJSBA European Ski Ladies Limited Champion, attended the Derbyshire Sports Awards after being crowned Sportsperson of the Year at the annual Erewash Sports Awards in October.

In what was an action packed week 191 record attempts were made at Coniston Powerboat Records Week in Cumbria, last week (31 October – 04 November).  At the end of the week six World and 16 National records have been submitted for approval, with records being set and broken some 46 times during the week.
 
To finish off the week eleven year old powerboating ace Ben Jelf was once more back out on the water and managed to improve on his world record time set the day before in the GT15 class and improve his time to 43.11mph, while Scott Collings clinched a new national record in the class 3C 2 litre EPA at 91.42mph.

Day four (Thursday 03 November) of records week and another 11 records, 2 World and 9 National, are set by the fearless speed demons at Coniston.
 
With entries now up to 41, the highest every for records week, over 151 attempts have been made on the water this week, with even more attempts planned for the final day.
 
The two big highlights of day four were new World records set by eleven year old wonderkid Ben Jelf in the GT15, on the first run of the day and Ian Wright in the S2000 class.

Day three (Wednesday 02 November) and it was yet another busy day on the water at Coniston as competitors made the most the mornings much improved weather conditions.
 
Now half way through the week, and over 100 record attempts have been made with a host of national and world records already established.
 
In the fastest run of the week, so far, at a staggering 124.59mph, Ian Wright blasted his way to a new NS2000 2.5litre EPA record.  Ian plans on hitting even higher speeds in the coming days in a bid to improve on his national record and claim a new world record.

RYA Powerboat Racing Champion Ben Jelf (11) from Maidstone, Kent is aiming to become the fastest 11 year old on water when he takes part at Coniston Records Week in the bid to set a new World Speed Record in the GT15.
 
From 31 October to 4 November UK Powerboat Racers from all over the country, including Ben, will head to Coniston Water in Cumbria for the 41st Annual Coniston Records Week, in the bid to set new National and World speed records.
 
For almost a hundred years Powerboat record attempts have been made on several of the English lakes including Ullswater, Windermere and Coniston Water. Following the introduction of the Windermere speed limit in early 2005 and after a good deal of effort from many volunteers, Records Week 2005 took place on Coniston Water over a newly surveyed kilometre course.

Britain’s James Bushell (27) from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, clinched both the World JJSBA 2011 Pro-Am GP Runabout  and Pro Runabout Championship titles at last weeks World Jet Ski Finals hosted by the IJSBA in Lake Havasu, Arizona.
 
Bushell was one of 804 entries from 40 different nations and 39 U.S. States attending the IJSBA World Championship, all battling it out for titles in a total of 48 closed-course racing classes as well as Pro Freestyle and Amateur Freestyle.
 
In brilliant sunshine and light winds, with air temperatures hovering in the low 80s and nearly smooth-as-glass water conditions, the final eight 2011 IJSBA World Championships were decided in front of a standing room only crowd of over 7,000 enthusiastic fans.