The Estonian took three heat wins and sat out the fourth with a maximum of 1200 points in the bag as he waited to be presented with gold and the 2020 UIM European championship.

Lithuanian drivers, Gintaras Marcinkus and Arvydas Dranseika went home with the UIM silver and bronze medals, with Dranseika claiming the final heat win.

2020 UIM OSY400 European Championship - Kupiškis, Lithuania

The post Suuk’s Sunday appeared first on Powerboat Racing World.

Suuk soaked up the pressure from an early challenge in heat 1 by Gintaras Marcinkus and then never looked back and took 2 heat wins.

Marcinkus from Lithuania ended the day with 300 points with his fellow countryman, Arvydas Dranseika third with 450.

OSY-400 Qualifying

Rene Suuk was fastest in the OSY-400 qualifying session.

His best lap was .304 quicker than the pre qualy favourite, and uber experienced, Janis Badaukis. Dranseika, was third .664 down.

2020 UIM OSY400 European Championship - Kupiškis, Lithuania

Sunday

10:00 – 10:30 GT15 Heat 3

10.45 – 11.15 OSY-400 Heat 3

11.30 – 12.00 GT30 Heat 3

13.00 – 13.30 GT15 Heat 4

13.45 – 14.15 OSY-400 Heat 4

14.30 – 15.00 GT30 Heat 4

All times EEST (GMT +3)

The post Suuk’s Saturday appeared first on Powerboat Racing World.

This weekend the park in question has been the Nicholas Everitt one on the banks of the Oulton Broad and the person taking that pleasant stroll has been Rasmus Haugasmagi on his way to securing the 2018 OSY400 European Champions title.

I quickly worked out that this race course deserves a great deal of respect that meant me re-thinking how you race it.

So, we set up the Powat hull for maximum acceleration out of the turns.

If you watched the way he approaches each of the two pins you could clearly see that he had backed off almost fifty metres before hitting the mark.

That way I then have plenty of time to count the waves in front of me and then judge my line around the turn buoy and then accelerate away.

It might look easy, but I prefer to call it safe.

In fact, this weekend has been incident free and the only time the rescue teams were called into action was tow-stricken craft back to the jetty.

With the Championship title all wrapped up after three heats, all that was left to be fought over were the remaining two steps on the podium. Could Britain’s Wayne Moyse snatch second place away from Cezary Strumnik?

Well they don’t call me ‘Mr Second-Place’ for no reason.

I was so surprised just how hard it is to drive this course, it’s completely different to anywhere else I have raced.

I knew the local drivers were all really motivated to beat the overseas racers, so they probably had me in their sights rather than Haugasmagi, but I managed to keep ahead of that hard charging pack.

As the racers lined up for the fourth and final heat both Haugasmagi and Strumnik, who had secured enough points to remain untouchable sat this one out.

That meant Jamie Marr would line up for his first ever pole in an international race. The reigning RYA British OSY400 Champion was certainly feeling the pressure because right alongside him would be Wayne Moyse.

As the pair entered the water they were tied in third place, both on 489 points, the winner would secure that final podium position.

Marr made the perfect start whilst Moyse suddenly found himself back in fourth place and knew he had his work cut out if he was to catch the British Champion.

With just six laps to decide that final podium place time soon ran out and Marr would claim that Bronze medal for Britain.

It was all about that first lap, once that was out of the way I just had to concentrate really hard on not hooking it in the rough turns.

I didn’t realise that Moyse was so far back, it wouldn’t have made the task any easier had I known anyway.

Overnight the team had dropped the engine height and changed propeller.

The delighted Marr said:

Yesterday, I thought the engine was running too hot in the rough, so we took a gamble on lowering it and it paid off.

For Moyse though the change in condition certainly hadn’t suited his racing style.

Today the water was completely different, and I just went backwards.

After the third heat I knew Marr had the speed, which made the job even harder.

When you own a hull like this one everyone else expects you to deliver good results, what they tend to forget is that I’ve only been back racing for just over a year and I still have a lot of catching up to do.

With the spray from the propellers being replaced by that from the champagne bottles, those racers gathered around the podium all agreed that the OSY400 European Championships had been a huge success and many applauded the Lowestoft & Oulton Broad Motor Boat Club for setting such a high standard of organisation and hoped that they wouldn’t have to wait another eleven years before they returned to the park.

OSY400 Hydroplane European Championship Final Results

1. Rasmus Haugasmagi Estonia 1200 points.
2. Cezary Strumnik Poland 900 points.
3. Jamie Marr UK 794 points.
4. Gintaras Marcinkus Lithuania 652 points.
5. Wayne Moyse UK 563 points.
6. Oliver Nilsson Sweden 521 points.
7. Jason Mantripp UK 275 points.
8. Miroslav Basinsky Slovakia 269 points.
9. Daniel Drake UK 201 points.
10. Grzegorz Stepniak Poland 182 points.
11. Tony Knights UK 97 points.
12. Brian Shulvar UK 82 points.
13. Sean Woods UK 66 points.

The post It’s a Walk in the Nicholas Everitt Park appeared first on Powerboat Racing World.

When you can rebuild your engine by hand with your eyes closed, you know it’s time to move on and that’s precisely what Cezary Strumnik will be doing when he packs his equipment away and leaves Nicholas Everitt Park on Sunday evening.

The Polish racer, who has been competing in the OSY400 class for ten years has now decided that he and his team need a fresh challenge. Over the last decade he has finished in the runner-up position to Rasmus Haugasmagi on no less than five occasions, four times in the World Championship and once in the Europeans.

It’s time to finish, I’ve spent long enough in this pursuit of a title.
What can I do to beat Haugasmagi, in the form that he is in this guy is unstoppable?

So where does the thirty-year-old plan to race?

Well to start off I’m going to take a year out of racing, then when everything is in place I want to race in the F500 World Championship.

He understands this will present him with two major challenges. The first being the cost as he’s worked out that racing F500 is four times more expensive than OSY400. The second one being the huge logistical plan he will need to get his head around.

One of the attractions is that the F500 World Championship is made up of two rounds at possibly five or six venues.

This will mean a lot of travelling, so I will need a bigger pool of people I can call on to come racing with me.

With race venues the length and breadth of Europe it will certainly mean that he will be spending more hours on the road, but he thinks it’s worth it.

Look at last years F500 World Championship, every race weekend was won by a different driver and the eventual Champion didn’t even win a race, they didn’t arrive at the venue thinking they had no realistic chance of winning.

The eight times Polish OSY400 Champion is certainly ambitious and wants to progress but sees the ‘Rasmus Effect’ is holding him and perhaps the OSY400 class back when it comes to numbers competing.

The reigning World and European Champion was quick to praise Strumnik though:

We have grown together and since 2013 he’s has come on so much, I will miss him.

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