#3, Blue Sheets Racing 1, Craig Davis(21) and Robert Martin (21) have been crowned the 2009 Zapcat National Champions, making them the youngest champions in the contests 9 years.
Davis started racing in 2005 and it wasn’t long before he teamed up with Martin to produce a formidable young team in the World’s Largest One Design Powerboat Championship. In 2007 they secured second place in the championship and in 2008 third narrowly missing the top spot on both occasions.
When the Green flag dropped at Bournemouth in May for the beginning of the 2009 campaign, it looked like it may finally be their year as they took wins in every heat, both days finals and the first Grand Prix title of the season. A long winter of training saw the youngsters on top of their game and leading the championship from day one.
The season took them the length of the country as they visited 7 venues for the National Championship including Watergate Bay, Newquay and north of the border to Leith Docks, Edinburgh.
The racing was fast and furious all season but Bluesheets Racing 1 Craig and Rob kept their cool even when the pressure was on, taking the Gold Medal position at 12 of 14 rounds of racing. Craig and Robbie looked like a formidable force half way into the season and ended up winning 6 out of the 7 Grand Prix titles only missing out to rivals Zapcat 38 Team Speedy Hire, Daren Ford and Sam Hunka, at Barry Island when the championship made its first return visit to Wales in 5 years.
In the coveted King of Surf competition – 4 rounds of racing held in the gruelling surf conditions at Watergate Bay, Newquay. Craig and Rob secured the King of Surf title only missing out on a clean sweep of 4 perfect rounds by a dominating win from Zapcat 25 Rana Park’s Neil Fraser and Jeremy Nazarin, narrowly keeping the national champions off the top spot at the penultimate round.
As the silverware kept flooding in Blue Sheets Racing 1 also secured the Zapcat Team Championship with team mates in #11 Blue Sheets Racing 2, Dan Smith and Nathan Parker, both from Southampton. Narrowly securing the title from the Lost Buoys in Zapcats #49 & #09.
The newly crowned can hardly contain their excitement whilst receiving congratulations on their title “It’s taken a lot of hard work and effort not only by us but our families, friends and sponsors it was a real team effort and we have them all to thank” pilot Craig Davis continued “At the beginning of the season it just felt right we spent a lot of time in the boat over the winter practising and at the first event it seemed to be paying off, once we were in the lead we just had to focus and keep our cool.”
Co-pilot Rob Martin explained why this year was different “Last year’s champions had retired and we knew we were just as fast as them so there was no reason why we couldn’t win this year, We’ve matured as a team and that helped us win the championship.”
He continued ”We spent a lot of time out on the water learning more about the boat and what she would do in the different conditions, we’d go out and spend time cornering and going from point to point until we could work out exactly where we both had to be in the boat in different set ups to get the best performance from the boat.”
The 2009 Zapcat Champions are the youngest team to win the championship in the 9 years the series has been running. Now as the series heads into it’s 10th Anniversary year Blue Sheets racing will be back out practising in the winter to ensure they are on top form to defend their title next year.