The final Grand Prix of the 2008 Zapcat National Championship Season will take place at Watergate Bay, near Newquay in Cornwall on 19 and 20 September and the battle for the title is set to go down to the wire.
Going into the final meeting of the season, which is also the second half of the King of the Surf contest, just 30 points separate defending champions Mick Pritchard and Baz Minns in 01 Pegasus Vortex Racing and the pretenders to the throne, Bligh Julius and Simon Butters in 03 Commandos Predator.
Bligh and Butters topped the podium in both rounds 11 and 12 to take the Bournemouth Grand Prix title and, more importantly, close the gap on their rivals. Second place on both days went to Baz and Mick after a consistent performance, only just out-gunned by the 03 Commandos Predator team.
Several Cornish teams will be competing at Watergate Bay, hoping to finish the 2008 season on a high. James and Niall Hoddinott from Fowey, racing 73 Blue Sheets/Boat Register, will be hoping for an end to a run of bad luck that saw their new boat written off when a vehicle ploughed into the back of them on the way to the Bournemouth Grand Prix last month.
Co-pilot Niall says, “We’re on our third boat now this season. We’ve only just got hold of the new one so we’ll need to spend some serious time in the boat this week getting it all set up to race. But we’re really looking forward to racing on our home patch at Watergate Bay.”
This is James and Niall’s rookie season in the Zapcat National Championship and they had a pretty impressive first outing in the Cornish surf.
“We finished fourth in Division 1 in Round 4 and fifth overall that weekend, so we were quite pleased with that,” says Niall. “Hopefully we’ll get another good result this weekend and have a strong finish to the season.”
23 Rusty Racing’s pilot Nick Pontin and his co-pilot Stuart Harrison, both from Gunnislake, are going in at the deep end after making their Championship debut in Round 12. But can one day’s racing in relatively flat conditions at Bournemouth prepare them for the massive waves of Watergate Bay, one of Cornwall’s best surf locations?
Nick says, “I’m not too worried about it to be honest. We don’t have any particular tactics – just to finish will be a bonus! Our first racing at Bournemouth was absolutely brilliant. We met lots of the other racers there and at the first Watergate Bay Grand Prix earlier in the season. It’s a great atmosphere.”
Charlie Brickle and his stepson Adam Bushrod from Portwrinkle will be racing 35 Nine Lives at Watergate Bay.
“It’s going to be good racing close to home,” Charlie says. “Watergate Bay’s a great beach to race on and we should get some big surf. We’ve had not a bad season, a few ups and downs and a bit of damage to the boat, but we’ve been on the podium five times.”
Although this is Charlie and Adam’s rookie season he’s been watching the Zapcat National Championship for a while, supporting a friend of his, Mark Holt, in 14 Go Commando 3.
“I went to watch him race and thought, ‘This is too good to miss out on,’” explains Charlie. “Luckily at the end of last season at Watergate Bay a boat came up for sale and I was in a position to be able to buy it, I rang Adam and he was up for it, too, so now he’s my co-pilot.
“For me, a sport has to have an adrenaline rush and this seriously does have that buzz. I was involved in motor sports before and in the kind of car racing I did it was always the person with the biggest bank balance that won. But with Zapcats, because it’s a one-design series, it’s really down to the skill of the pilot and co-pilot.”
Other regional teams taking part include the Royal Navy-sponsored Royal Marines Go Commando teams. They have five boats competing in the 2008 National Championship and won’t have far to travel from their base near Plymouth.
They are also sponsoring the Royal Marines Trophy which will be presented at the end of season awards dinner. The trophy will be awarded to the team that shows the four qualities the Royal Marines instil in all their trainees and by which all Commandos live their lives: courage, determination, unselfishness and cheerfulness in the face of adversity.
The 2008 Zapcat National Champions will be crowned at the awards dinner at Watergate Bay Hotel on the evening of Saturday 20 September. Trophies will also be awarded to Rookie of the Year for the best performance in their debut season, the top Mixed Team, as Zapcat Racing is one of the few sports where men and women can compete on an equal level and many of the teams feature a woman co-pilot or pilot. King of the Surf, overall Team Championship and the safety team’s Bent Prop Award will complete the ceremony.