After an impressive European campaign for Maritimo’s Tom Barry-Cotter and Pal Virik Nilsen, taking third overall behind Victory 1 and Fazza, the Australian-Norwegian pairing head to the Middle East for the final Grands Prix of the season in Abu Dhabi (19-21 November) and Dubai (10-12 December) looking to cap a stellar year by taking their second, but first ‘official’ win, and to defend their current third place in the World Championship standings.
Launching their two-boat assault on the World title in March with a new in-house Maritimo designed-hull and running Maritimo Performance V8s, it has been a roller coaster ride of a season for the Australian outfit.
The team was reduced to running one boat after Giorgio Manuzzi and Peter ‘Muddy’ McGrath crashed out in Romania, but the season has seen Barry-Cotter and Nilsen come to terms with their flighty new raceboat, and Class 1’s youngest partnership is now reaping the dividends as they become regular visitors to the podium.
After overcoming a frustrating start to the season in Qatar, Barry-Cotter and Nilsen have established themselves as genuine title challengers and race winners, taking their first podium in Norway, leading home a team two-three finish in Arendal.
They followed this with a hard-fought third place in Race 2 in the Romanian Grand Prix, and took the chequered flag and looked to have won their first Grand Prix in Stresa in Italy, but were cruelly denied just moments before gracing the top step of the podium, after incurring a very, very late post-race long lap time penalty, dropping them to second.
And whilst it was a bitter pill to swallow for Barry-Cotter and Nilsen it confirmed their position as the leading challenge to Dubai’s Victory Team.
Realistically, Barry-Cotter and Nilsen know that this season the World title may already be beyond their grasp unless their Middle East rivals suffer some form of catastrophic technical meltdown, but they also know that a win is within reach.
They also know that they will have to produce their best to defend their third place and keep at bay what will undoubtedly be a fierce challenge from Welmax, currently three points behind them in fourth.