Gavin Parsonage and Nathan Libby driving Negotiator claimed their first victory of 2005 at Liverpool Grand Prix on August 21 when they won round eight of the 225hp Honda Formula 4-Stroke championship.
Gavin Parsonage and Nathan Libby driving Negotiator claimed their first victory of 2005 at Liverpool Grand Prix on August 21 when they won round eight of the 225hp Honda Formula 4-Stroke championship.
The Cornwall-based duo took the lead at the start, only to be overtaken at the first mark by the only all-girl team of Shelley Jory and Libby Keir aboard Team Raymarine. Parsonage and Libby then battled hard for twelve laps to regain the place, finally succeeding on the final turn of the race. A nail-biting finish saw Negotiator take the chequered flag a mere one second ahead of Team Raymarine.
“We are thrilled if a little surprised!” commented Parsonage. “We were involved in a collision with Claygate Bathrooms in Saturday’s seventh round which broke our engine mount. We only noticed it morning when we did some last-minute repair work so we weren’t expecting much from the race. But then we got a great start and even when Team Raymarine overtook us we knew we could catch them. We finally got our chance on the last mark, when Shelley and Libby lost some time passing a back marker and we just went through. We’re really pleased with the result. We’ve had some bad luck this season and it’s good to get a break for once!”
Shelley Jory and Libby Keir in Team Raymarine were not too disappointed. “We kept losing the steering so Shelley did really well just to get us round, let alone to keep us in contention for first place,” said Keir. “We’re also pleased as we had to redeem ourselves after going the wrong way on Saturday!”
Championship leaders Rob Lister and Will Nocker in Fat Boy Racing were not so happy with their result, finishing seventh, the first time they haven’t been on the podium this year.
“We were just down on power,” explained Nocker. “We’re disappointed but it’ll make the final rounds in Guernsey very interesting.”
Round seven winners Jack Glendinning and Simon Bucknall driving Warmup finished third.
Clive Coote and Chris Hughes in X-Pole made it two out of two at Liverpool, winning both rounds in a very competitive 150hp event.
“We couldn’t have asked for any more,” commented Coote. “To win two out of two at this year’s penultimate grand prix, sets us up for the final Guernsey rounds. And it was a great race. We took the lead at the start, only to lose it to Delmar Flooring on the first lap. Delmar then turned at the wrong buoy on lap two, an error which allowed us to move back to first place. They battled hard to catch us but we managed to stop them from taking the lead again. It was quite a weekend for my co-driver Chris Hughes – his first taste of powerboat racing and two wins – brilliant.”
The weekend was entirely different for Tony Crossley and Mark Glanville in Delmar Flooring. The Exmouth-based team led Saturday’s seventh 150hp round from start to finish, only to be docked a lap for missing a buoy. They then ran out of fuel just 100 meters off the finish line in the eighth, handing Mark Allen and Louise Marshall in R2 Composites with second place, their best result yet.
Vernon Hunt and Andy Brown in Extreme Chaos completed Sunday 150hp contest race with a podium third.
Despite finishing seventhFat Boy Racing maintains its lead in the 225hp championship.
The 2005 Honda Formula 4-Stroke 150hp and 225hp championships moves to Guernsey for the final rounds of the series on the 10th and 11th September.
