P1 Supersport prize goes to championship leader
Local Maltese competitor, Aaron Ciantar, driving the Supersport Conam Yachts, won the opening round of the Malta Grand Prix of the Sea on Saturday after leading from start to finish.
The SuperSport championship points leading team were untouchable as they attacked the rough seas off Valletta, securing their second success of the weekend after winning the pre-race Power Pole on Friday.
“It was a really hard race,” said throttleman Tedeschi. “The conditions were much tougher than we imagined. Aaron drove well achieving a wonderful result for the team in front of the thousands of Maltese fans.”
With two boats – Phoenix 8 and the Spirit of Portomaso – forced out at the start with mechanical problems, the remaining crews set off in a freshening wind . As seas roughened, attrition became a factor and by the fourth lap, Big Sergio had broken down and retired while Saho suffered a damaged water pump.
Drive of the day came from the crew of VoomVoom.com who moved up from the back of the fleet to take a dramatic second place from Baia High Performance as the race drew to a close. Renato Guidi, throttleman of the Baia High Performance, said:
“The whole team is exhausted, and the conditions were so rough that one of the pilot’s seats was shaken loose. Even so, it’s a great result.”
VoomVoom.com owner Vee Gangavian, added:
“It took a while for us to get up speed, but towards the end of the race we finally found a happy medium between the drives and the tabs. At the end, we took every turn as tight as possible and kissed almost every buoy?we didn’t want to give up our position after fighting so hard.”
Despite choosing the wrong propellers for the conditions the British Buzzi Bullet continued its fight to the finish.
“Conditions changed radically as the wind freshened and seas became rougher. That said, it was a great race and it was good to get our points and finish,” said driver Jan Falkowski.
