Oct 01 - #55 Team Gibraltar End The Season Strongly
The Gibraltar Thundercat team attended the Newquay King of the Surf event with memories of last year and their very first event in U.K. waters. Round 11 on Saturday had the very little surf and this made it difficult for the team, with their less powerful engine but confidence grew with a few good results, a 2nd & 3rd in the first couple of heats.
Heat 4 saw the team battling hard for the top position when disaster struck and the boat hooked sending the pilot, Leslie Figueras, flying out the boat and a quick response from Team Torbay Eco Energies in boat 5 prevented a collision. The restart took place without Team 55 because of the man over board. Despite no points in this heat, the Team still qualified for the final and finished in 6th out of the 13 boats.
Sunday and Round 12 was an early start and the waves were much bigger and only for the brave! The sun was shining and in front of a packed Fistral beach the teams battled each other and the surf. Racing was hard and fast with – surprisingly - no flips. Flipping the boats in this type of surf is quite common, so this was perhaps a testament to the driving knowledge and experience of these pilots. Due to a few mechanical retirements all 12 remaining boats qualified for the final with Team Gibraltar in 9th position on the start line. Conditions were difficult for a beach start with teams unable to hold their boats in the surf, so the officials quickly decided to go for a deep water start. Team Gibraltar got a good start jumping up the positions to 7th, which they held to the chequered flag.
The weekend ended with the End of Season Awards Party, a great evening culminating with 55 Team Gibraltar receiving an Award for Contribution to the Sport. The team is satisfied with the progress this season and looks forward to challenging the top runners in 2015. In the 2014 RYA British National Championships #55 Team Gibraltar finished in 10th place out of 20 teams, having taken part in only 5 of the 12 rounds. Leslie Figueras finished 9th in the Drivers’ Championship and Albert Perez in 14th, both creditable results considering it is their first season and they were not able to attend all the events.
Right now the team are very excited about racing in Gibraltar, in front of their family and friends at the U.I.M. P750 European Championships 2014 in Eastern Beach. They hope as many people as possible will come out to support them on Eastern Beach between the 1st and 5th October.
There are still opportunities to sponsor the Team or if you just want to follow the team's progress you can do so by following them on their Facebook page - 55 Team Gibraltar - and on http://www.thundercatracing.com
