This weekend sees the thirty-ninth International Traben-Trarbach Motorboat Race take place and amongst the UIM F4 racers that are making their way to race there is Britain’ s Harvey Smith.

Traben-Trarbach is located on the Moselle about 60 km southwest of Koblenz in Germany. The racecourse is laid out on Moselle River which divides the city into two parts: the district Traben lies on the left of the Moselle in the Eifel region and Trarbach to the right of the river on the Hunsrück side.

When Smith spoke to PRW at the Stewartby test weekend he joked by saying

My father raced in Germany many, many years ago, I wonder if they remember him…….hopefully not!

Following in the ‘footsteps’ of his fellow countryman Ben Jelf, who won the last F4 race there back in 2019, Smith is really looking forward to racing in the German Championship. It should have started back in June but unfortunately the ADAC motorboat race in Brodenbach was cancelled due to the pandemic causing a lack of helpers and emergency services that were needed to carry out the event.

It’s not the first time that Smith has gone to Traben-Trarbach to race there as back in 2016 he had entered the GT15 class. Unfortunately, the weekend turned into an incredibly sad occasion as Massimo Rossi, the O350 and O250 World Champion was competing in the O350 International Ordinary Race when he lost control of his hull which then flew onto the embankment and hit a tree. The twenty-four-year-old died from his injuries. All subsequent races at the competition were cancelled.

Two years later they were back again with their GT15 hull ready to race but once again tragedy struck the event when the weekend was cancelled after the fatal accident of the Latvian Lotars Millers in the first heat of the F-R1000 class.

Smith remembers it as a surreal experience

Although I didn’t witness either accident it’s hard not to be affected by it because this is a sport that I am totally immersed in.

Just recently he has found out just how far you can ‘push the envelope’ before you end up getting wet after he rolled his Moore hull twice at the very same place whilst competing at Oulton Broad. Fortunately, the only thing that was hurt was his pride and his father’s wallet.

We made some modifications to the hull which we now see have certainly improved the handling in the turns. It’s just small things that we adapt to suit my racing style.

Smith expects the F4 entry list to be extremely competitive

Meeting new competitors is always a positive way to advance as I’m no expert in this field and I’m always open to advice which hopefully I will get when I’m in Germany. It will also be a good test to see how I compare against a diverse set of racers.

The team at PRW wish him luck and will be keeping an eye on his exploits in this year’s ADAC German Championship.