Former Powerboat P1 Evolution class champion Giancarlo Cangiano is teaming up for with fellow veteran racer Hannes Bohinc for his assault on the 2009 crown. Bohinc will join the 2006 title winner and long-time technical manager Giovanni Carpitella in the #88 Outerlimits boat that finished second in the title chase last year.

Bohinc – a successful businessman with bison farming and online gambling among his successful ventures – is an experienced powerboat racer, with a strong record in endurance racing events. He’s one of only six drivers to have won the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race twice, and is also a double winner of the Harmsworth Trophy. He returns to the Powerboat P1 championship following a successful 2005 season with the Wettpunkt.com Evolution class team.

Cangiano has said he’s all geared up to try and recapture his title crown after narrowly missing out to the #99 Fountain Worldwide team for the past two years. The Italian-based outfit have spent a portion of the winter testing their Mercury-powered Outerlimits SV43 in smooth-water conditions on Lake Como. “It was a very important test, as well as exciting,” Cangiano said. “The already has a fantastic feeling and we are definitely ready for the start of the world championship.”

Bohinc said that he was happy with his first experience of working with the #88 Outerlimits team. “I could tell right away that the boat is excellent,” he added. “I immediately found a good pace with Cangiano and Carpitella, and I had a good impression of the mechanics of the team. The cockpit is well positioned for the pilots. The high-speed cornering is fantastic, and this test was enough to make me come back with the urge to race.”