Italian Grand Prix
Trieste , Italy - 16 June Saturday 2002

Victory Team
News 2002

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Trieste , Italy- Crash and splash was the highlight of the day when the Italian city of Trieste hosted the 2002 UIM World Offshore Championship Pole Position and witnessed sporting drama unfold with a high speed crash in the Adriatic sea .

The season opened with last years time trial champions Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis clinching a first in the pole position with the fastest time run of one minute and fifty-nine seconds, a mere 3 seconds ahead of Ali Nasser and Ali Al Qama in Victory 7. Lying in third were Saeed H. Al-Tayer and Mohammed Al Marri in Victory 1 with a run of 2 minutes and 4 seconds.

A jubilant Steve Curtis, English throttleman for Spirit of Norway said, “We had a great run out there. We were fortunate that we were out of the pit area first. That gave us clear waters and an extra advantage.” adding. “Also we hit the set-up spot on in regards to the propeller choice, that really helped.”

Most spectacular of all however, was the horrific crash that saw Edoardo Polli’s boat, Highlander, do a spectacular barrel roll 21 minutes into the pole position during their second run; a run that saw them clocking speeds that would have set them in good stead for tomorrows line and secures them in fourth place in the pole position standings. A wet but surprisingly unhurt Polli said. “I came into the corner too quickly and basically flipped the boat.” Asked about injuries, the Italian replied, “Off course not, I’m a highlander”.  Though the tough Italian and his cockpit companion may have come out of the dramatic crash unscathed, damage to the boat proved extensive and may well see Polli’s hopes of competing in the next race in jeopardy. “We need to see how much damage has been done to the boat. We can only hope that it is repairable for the race on the 7^th of July in Travamunde.”

Not his first crash, Polli last year saw his hopes of a championship title go up in smoke when he flipped in Travamunde and saw his red boat smashed beyond all repair. Never one to give up, the Italian was fast to secure an ex-Victory Team boat and was back into the championship running and had only ran the boat four times before yesterdays crash.

First to the scene were the Australian boat Riviera who stopped their time run to lend assistance to the shaken Polli and Brombin. “We were directly behind them when we saw the accident and as we were the first at the scene we stopped to help.

Fresh from a season of Class Two, Victory 1 found them selves struggling in the first run but soon returned in to the pits for a quick change that saw them back out again with  faster speeds and ultimately a third place on the podium. “I think we are trying to get used to class One again as we were way off in our propeller selection. But we got our act together quickly and made adjustments that put us back into third place after lying in sixth.” adding. “Although we were clocking faster times, conditions had changed a little and it seemed that the best runs were to be had in the first half of the hour.”

Looking to tomorrows race, Al-Tayer commented. “We are really looking forward to it. We have to test tomorrow morning to figure out which will be the most suitable propeller choice and give it a good shake down in the morning.”

Today’s race will witness a slightly depleted fleet of 11 Class One boats instead of 12 in the line up for the 60-minute or 103 nautical miles race.

With predictions of flat calm seas, today’s race is expected to be fast and furious and residents of Trieste will be spoilt when high speed sporting drama powers off today at 13:30 .