Category Archives: RacingNews(ENG)

RacingNews(ENG)

TORTOLI-ARBATAX: Italian and French riders share top honours in the opening heats of the Sardinia-Ogliastra Grand Prix. Mattia Fracasso grabbed a dramatic late win in Runabout F1, Stefania Balzer took her first-ever heat victory in Ski Ladies F1, with Jean-Baptiste Botti taking his second win of the season in Ski Division F1 and Romain Stampers producing a flawless display in the Freestyle event. In Ski Division F1 Jean-Baptiste Botti grabbed the immediate advantage, outpacing his fellow countryman and pole-sitter Jeremy Poret on the run to the first turnbuoy, moving out to a four second lead by the end of lap six. Christopher Courtois led the chase, ahead of Italy’s Emanuele Balzer and Spaniard Nachette Armillas, the trio holding station and unable to make any impression on the leaders for the remainder of the race. By lap eight Botti was nine seconds clear, with Poret unable to do anything and eventually settling for second place. The feature race of the afternoon produced all the drama that was expected following Cyrille Lemoine’s success over Franky Zapata in qualifying. And it was Lemoine who led the 26-rider Runabout field from Zapata from the start – both incurring penalties in a frantic opening leg. The defending Champion held off a hard-charging Zapata for four laps but was then passed by the current Championship leader, who immediately pulled away, opening up a 13-second lead before a transmission failure ended his race on lap eight. Lemoine sailed into the lead and looked to be set for his first win of the year, when a broken compressor two laps later ended his race. Italian Mattia Fraccaso, who was running in fifth spot at the end of lap one slowly made his way up the rankings, passing Lorenzo Benaglia and Francois Medori, and then finding himself out front on the penultimate lap following the retirements of Zapata and then Lemoine to take his first win of the year. Medori finished second ahead of Giusepe Greco, moving up six places during the race.

Jean-Bruno Pastorello and his team-mate Amaury Carlier are the winners of Akropolis Jet Raid that was held for the first time in Athens, Greece. Although, Amaury experienced some overheating issues on the Sunday morning on his full-throttle way to Aigina Island he managed to save his points and finish to second place in F1 Class behind Jean-Bruno and both retained their 1-2 place in the Overall Standings. Frenchman Vidal Olivier who also raced a Kawasaki prepared by Team Pastorello finished in third place in F`1 Class. A big success for French Team Pastorello, for second time this year since the team had also won the Mark Hahn 300 race in February in Havasu. Read the complete race report and Overall Standings under the Features section.

Thierry Vanhoof: New at the sport The particular racer from Belgium he is racing for the first time in Jet Race however the most spectacular thing about him is that Akropolis Jet Race was his debut race to sport of personal watercraft racing. He is a very good friend of 2 times winner of the Jet Raid, Manos Pannousis who is also the CEO of Akropolis Jet Race and he works for Bacardi. It is nice to see new people with a fresh mind and positive attitude to enter the sport.

Team Pastorello is still on the top of the standings after Saterday’s Navigation Stage which was held in the morning from Sounio to Patroklos Island, then to Ag.Georgios Island to Makronisos Island and back to Sounio Cape. Riders started with the reverse order form the previous day’s standings and they had a two minute difference. Jean-Bruno Pastorello and his team-mate Carlier are ahead in the standings with 160 and 136points respectively. In third place is Vidal Olivier with 114 and De Wispelaere/Mosselman are in fourth with 100 points in front of Belgian rider Cohren with 82 points.

“It was a very difficult day for me. I was lots of issues with the GPS which it did not work and I nearly lost my way to Porto-Helli. It was pure luck that I managed to find my way to Porto-Helli bay without DNF due to fuel consumption. Now I do understand why the experienced riders carry more than two GPS units on their crafts. The weather conditions were severe and I was not prepared at all for this race so it made it even worse for me. I would like to congratulate Patricia De Wispelaere for finishing fourth on such a rough day. I wish best of luck to all riders for tomorrow and I hope that everyone would enjoy the race in Greece, a country that faces many issues at this moment.” multi National Greek Champion (21 titles in Pro Ski and Pro Runabout) announced to his press release at www.jetskiworld.gr right after the race.

Team Pastorello riders, Jean-Bruno and Amaury Carlier dominated the first two stages of Sounio-Porto Helli and Back by winning in a class of their own. The two riders new exactly how to control the power and fuel consumption along with the harsh weather conditions and managed to finish the day by clinching the first two positions at the day results. Frenchman Jean-Bruno Pastrorello mentioned that the weather conditions were very bad and it was a big challenge for him to race especially under poor visibility.

All riders started from Sounio Cape to cover a distance of 90km, passing close from Aigina Island and finished to the Bay of Porto Helli. Ente Sylvian (Kawasaki 300X) was initially at the front and later he was passed from Amaury Carlier (Kawasaki 300X) and Jean Bruno Pastorello (Kawasaki 300X). Finally, Jean-Bruno Pastorello crossed first the line at Porto Helli in front of his team mate Carlier and Sylvain. All Greek riders managed to finish the first Stage of Akropolis Jet Raid. Spanish rider Amador failed to cross the finish line since he had no fuel left. Chris “CBI” Stamboltzis (Sea-Doo) managed to finish fourth on a brand new craft that he was breaking in early in the morning. A great debut at Jet Raid for Evangelo Papatheodorou who finished fourth on a borrowed watercraft. That was a magnificent result from the veteran and very experienced Greek rider. The riders were racing in rough water and through a storm, having the strong South East winds blowing from behind. On the way back to Sounio the conditions are expected to be much harder and fuel consumption will be challenge.