Jan Zaborowski and son confirm racing comeback
Jan Zaborowski is to fill a frontline role in the Class 1 World Offshore Powerboat Championship. Supporting his son Christian (pictured) as team manager, the pair plan to line up in the Norwegian Grand Prix at Arendal on July 16-18: both making a welcome return to the racing scene.
Zaborowski confirmed that he has reached an agreement with Jorn Tandberg, owner-throttleman of Welmax Offshore Racing, to run their second boat under new colours and as an independent team.
This is important news for Class I where only six boats were available to compete in the second race in the opening round of the championship series in Brazil in March.
“The agreement with Jorn is a multi-year deal,” said Zaborowski senior, a familiar face in Class 1 circles, who was team manager of Ugland Offshore Racing for over a decade. “Jorn retains ownership of the hardware, but as team principal of the new operation I have full control to manage and run the team independently.”
More details of the new operation will be revealed in the coming weeks, but Zaborowski already has the race boat – the Maritimo designed and built hull that ran as Welmax Alianza in the season-opener in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – in his workshop in Asker, Norway.
“We will continue to run the boat with the Mercury V8 engines, but will be looking to make several modifications and focussing on improving the overall balance. We plan to test in the coming weeks.”
What is confirmed is that Christian Zaborowski, who played a cameo role in last year’s Championship, racing in Qatar with Jorn Tandberg and in Abu Dhabi and Dubai with Nicola Giorgi, will return to full-time race duties and take the throttles. The team is currently holding talks with several drivers and will announce who will race alongside Christian.
