India's first powerboat championship, the Nexa P1 Powerboat GP, couldn't have had a more cracker of a debut run. The qualifiers on Friday saw the top three competitors within 1sec of each other, the leaders Sam and Daisy Coleman from team Baleno RS Boosterjet, leading the second position by just 0.1sec.
The brother-sister duo kickstarted Saturday’s 15-lap race 1 at Marine Drive fighting hard with 99 (Pilot: Henry Norvall-UK, Navigator: Kevin Norvall-UK). However, within the first lap, the siblings managed to slip ahead of the lot and went on to dominate race 1 far ahead of boats 99 and 21 (Pilot: Craig Daniel Wilson-UK, Navigator: William Enriquez-USA).
Reverse grid Race 2 started out with Mirchi Mavericks boats 95 (Driver: John Donnelly-UK, Navigator: Kevin Burdock-UK) and 983 (Driver: David Taft-UK, Navigator: Fredrik Bastin-Belgium) in the lead, with race 1 winners starting out at 8th position. However, the Colemans didn't spare even the first lap to power past the competition into position 2. By lap four, the British champions had slipped into first, just as boat 95 had commenced the first of their two mandatory long laps for the race. A long lap is an extended section of the course that each team needs to complete twice during the race.
Boat number 99 followed in position 2 and 21 in three. Coming out of their second and final long lap, 99 entered the track alongside 95. The two tussled for second position. Boat 95, though, left little room to overtake around corners, and sneaked in as 2nd, but only till lap 11. Boat 99 doggedly chased 95 and slipped past them as the new runner-up.
There was still no catching up with the Coleman siblings, who were in turn about a lap ahead of their team mates. The British P1 Superstock champs cleanly swept the first two races in their boat number 150.
What came as a surprise was boat 95 turtling over just around the last corner. But both drivers, Donnelly and Burdock, emerged unhurt.
Indian pilot Gaurav Gill (with Navigator George Ivey) driving the Ultra Sharks boat number 10 went past the finish line at fifth position in both the races, and CS Santosh (with Navigator Martin Robinson) from team Baleno RS Boosterjet grabbed eighth in the first two races held on Saturday.
The final will be held on Sunday, March 5, from 3-5pm, at Marine Drive.
Top five finishers from day 1:
Pos Boat No Boat Name Driver Navigator
1 150 BALENO RS BOOSTER JETS Sam Coleman(UK) Daisy Coleman(UK)
2 99 MONEY ON MOBILE MARLINS James Norvill (UK) Christian Parsons-Young(UK)
3 21 LLOYD DOLPHINS Craig Wilson (USA) William Enriquez (USA)
4 11 LLOYD DOLPHINS Stuart Cureton (UK) Sara Cureton (UK)
5 10 ULTRA SHARKS Gaurav Gill (IND) George Ivey (USA)
Unnatee Gidithuri
Dipan Sur
