Oslo, Norway: Spirit of Norway's Bjorn Rune Gjelsten and Steve Curtis would have loved to have a start like this at the opening round of the WPPA Class One World Championship in Athens.
That never happened due to technical niggles, but the steely Norwegians feel it is still better late than never as they chase the Victory 77 pairing of Aref Saif Al Zafein and Jean Marc Sanchez for a record seventh world crown.
Gjelsten and Curtis opened their chances for yet another world crown when they convincingly won the Scandinavian Grand Prix - the third round of the 2007 WPPA Class One World Powerboat Championship here on Sunday.
"Our work has just begun now. It was very important for us to win here and we hope we can carry forward this momentum," Gjelsten said.
One to be realistic in his approach, Gjelsten pointed fair and square to the Victory Team set-up.
"They are so systematic and the most professional outfit in Class One today. So we know that we need to focus on the Victory Team boats. As always, they are the team to beat this year too," the Norwegian admitted.
"The Qatar Team boats are also there, but it is Victory whom we have to be careful about the most. And now that we have started winning, we are confident the world title will be decided at the last race in Dubai," Gjelsten said.
Reliability factor
Victory Team manager Gian Franco Venturelli is aware that it is at the most going to be a two-horse battle for the world title this season.
"We knew Spirit of Norway was going to be there at the top. We also know that we have a lot of work to do from now on," the Italian said.
"We are happy with the reliability of the boats. We now need to find a way to reach the first buoy first.
"Obviously, we have one thing less to worry about and that is the reliability factor. But we need to concentrate a bit more on the performance of the boats," he added.
Results
Class One World Powerboat Championship standings at the end of three rounds:
1. Victory 77 (Aref Al Zafein/Jean Marc Sanchez) 58 pts; 2. Qatar 96 (Shaikh Hassan Bin Jaber Al Thani/Matteo Nicolini) 43 pts; 3. Victory 7 (Talib Al Sayed/Nader Bin Hindi) 40 pts: 4. Spirit of Norway (Bjorn Rune Gjelsten/Steve Curtis) 36 pts; 5. Qatar 95 (Abdullah Al Sulaiti/Luca Nicolini) 20 pts.
Euro Championship positions: 1. Victory 77 (Aref Al Zafein/Jean Marc Sanchez) 55 pts; 2. Qatar 96 (Shaikh Hassan Bin Jaber Al Thani/Matteo Nicolini) 39 pts; 3. Victory 7 (Talib Al Sayed/Nader Bin Hindi) 36 pts: 4. Spirit of Norway (Bjorn Rune Gjelsten/Steve Curtis) 32 pts; 5. Qatar 95 (Abdullah Al Sulaiti/Luca Nicolini) 16 pts.
