Going into the second race weekend which took place during the Yachting Malta Ltd Race Week, Freccia Blu held a three-point lead over El Diablo with Interceptor Remax a further ten points behind. Could Beppe Debono hang onto to that narrow championship lead.

Due to adverse weather conditions Friday’s practice scheduled to take place along the Sliema Seafront was cancelled along with the first V2 race which had to be postponed to the following day. Fortunately, the Cyber Class race went ahead within the confines of the Grand Harbour.

As the competitors left the paddock situated at Boiler Wharf they found the conditions had greatly improved allowing them to complete the longest race of the weekend.

As the green flag was raised Michael Xuereb and Sam Howse’s Interceptor Remax made the perfect start although they were eventually caught and passed by El Diablo.

Now a tight battle for second place between Interceptor Remax and Freccia Blu took place but unfortunately the series leaders suffered an injector failure which led to the engine power being reduced significantly. Nevertheless, they managed to secure a third-place finish and acquire valuable points to try and hold onto their series lead.

Beppe Debono from Freccia Blu said.

Our team is working hard to have the engine running flawlessly for Race Two, which is expected to be held this afternoon.

As the competitors headed out once again the Team Freccia Blu mechanics had replaced the affected injector and all six spark plugs. When the ECU was tested all seemed to be running well with full engine power restored, but unfortunately on their way out to start the second race the same engine warning light kicked in and once again reduced the engine power significantly.

We decided to go ahead with the race and try to do the mandatory seventy-five per cent of the race distance. Finishing in fifth place is not what we wished for or worked for; however, we are grateful to have finished the race and gain some points, but for us the championship title has gone.

The third and final race of the weekend saw a similar pattern from the previous two races with Interceptor Remax briefly holding the lead before being overtaken by El Diablo shortly after. They were followed by Jesmond Aquilina and Christian Galea’s Marine Diffusion and the rest of the race progressed in this order with these three teams taking the final podium.

Once again, the race lead was quickly taken by El Diablo with Interceptor Remax slotting into second place. Chasing the leading pair right to the very end of the race were Team Cutting Edge. Following their crash in the third race at last month’s Grand Prix in St. Paul’s Bay the crew of Steve Bezzina and Co-pilot Michael Abela were delighted with their third-place finish. For a full month, the crew had worked nearly every day till 2 am in the morning to get the boat ready for the races at the Sliema Promenade.

Once back ashore Michael Abela said.

That result was only made possible through sheer challenging work and dedication.

As they stepped onto the podium Xuereb and Howse were quick to praise the series champions.

Congratulations to our friends and competitors El Diablo racing team. It was great battling them throughout the weekend. The demanding work and improvements made by our team in the last month have paid off and we will keep on pushing.

In the Cyber Class, which did not race on Sunday, the final positions on the podium were decided by the previous days races. In the Under 21 Race, the podium was taken up by Bad Company (Rhys Grima), The Element (Celine Farrugia)  and  Chaudron (Hailey Ciantar), in first, second and third place, respectively.

Aaron Ciantar, the Voomquest founder said.

Once again, we would like to thank all those who were part of the Voomquest family this weekend. The weather did not make life easy for us but with good teamwork we managed to pull off another fantastic weekend of racing.

With two further Grand Prix scheduled for later in the year (dates still to be confirmed) there is still plenty to race for in the Voomquest Enemed UIM V2 World Championships are sponsored by Enemed and supported by Yachting Malta Ltd. The series is also supported by Chaudron Powerboats, P&C Cauchi Demolition, Visit Malta, Preluna Skyroom, Premium Power Sport and the Senglea Local Council.

Images by Alex Buttigieg, Deea Buzdugan, and Alex Turnball.

Back in 2019 the pair won the championship despite having a bad start due to missing a turn buoy at the opening race. However, they made up for that with several consecutive wins, the last one being in Marina di Ragusa which sealed that year’s championship title.

Today was a superb start to our championship title defence and we are very much looking forward to the second race. All teams will now be on full throttle to do their best and improve their performance, however at the end of the day, the most important thing is to race.

Runners up Team Freccia Blu had started from pole position but were quickly past by El Diablo even so they were still optimistic about the weekend.

Following their visit to the podium Beppe Debono said

A big thanks to my super team, well done to all competitors and thumbs up to the organisers for creating a fantastic village. My team will try it’s best, but it will be a tough year against the new Mercury 300R V8 which produced 340hp on the dyno yesterday against our 314 hp from our previous model.

Earlier in the day Element Racing Team’s sixteen-year-old Celine Farrugia, the niece of Aaron Ciantar, founder of the championship, skilfully edged her way through some tough competition to take the first chequered flag of the weekend in the Cyber class.

Photos Alex Buttigieg/Voomquest