Yes baby… that’s a win in Michigan City. Wow, conditions were crazy out there and we’re just glad everyone finished the right way up. Well done to all the teams – everyone’s necks and kidneys will be hurting tonight. This is a team win – our crew bust their arses after long flights to get us on the water and give us a competitive boat. Thank you, boys.

At the drop of the green flag, Huski Racing and 222 Offshore commenced battle to the first turn buoy ahead of the new entry GBX Racing, and JBS Racing.

It was Nicholson and Carpitella in their 222 Offshore Victory catamaran that would prove to have the right boat setup for the day, as they out accelerated the Huski Racing crew of Steve Curtis and Travis Pastrana, opening a sizeable lead, and never looking back.

Huski Racing Technical Director, Gary Stray explained

It started out as an extremely competitive race with us battling with 222 Offshore, but on the third lap we had a turbo temperature sensor fail which put us into guardian mode for the rest of the race. We are glad that we manage to finish the race and pick up some more points towards the Class 1 championship.  We would like to congratulate 222 Offshore on their win and we look forward to St Pete in September.

GBX Racing’s Alex Pratt and Miles Jennings produced the heartstopper of the day, taking a massive jump and standing the boat straight up in the air and landing on its side.

The Anglo-American pairing would continue to finish third, despite considerable damage to their MTI catamaran.

Pratt commented:

There was some big water out there today which provided a steep learning curve for me in my debut race season. The team will need to carry out some repairs before the next race on Florida’s Gulf Coast and I can’t wait to get back into action next month.

Jeff Stevenson and Micheal Stancombe of JBS Racing did not finish the race, pulling out with a mechanical issue after seven laps.

With Huski Racing still leading the championship, the next round will be in St. Petersburg, Florida, on September 2-4.

Photo credit: Paul Kemiel

We take a moment to chat to crew chief of the team and world-renowned racer in his own right, Peter “Muddy” McGrath about the Michigan City race and his thoughts on the teams’ chances to take the Championship.

Pete, we’re at the halfway mark, how do you feel the year is going for the team?

We’ve had a little bit of a tough start, but really, the boat has performed well given it was parked up for two years without being touched.  It’s always hard when you’re based in another country and you’re trying to run a boat in a competition from the other side of the world.  We fly into the US about two weeks prior to each race and then spend a week after the race doing mechanical checks before heading home to Australia.  At the first race in Cocoa Beach, we had a great start, but we had a mechanical failure a few laps from the end.  It’s a long way to come not to finish a race!!

What are your thoughts on the upcoming race in Michigan City?

The Michigan City race is a little different to what we normally do – firstly it’s a lake, but it’s also freshwater, so we sit lower in the water than we would in seawater.  Conditions wise, our boat is ideal in rougher weather, so we always like a bit of chop on the water.  It’s funny, because most people when they see it’s rough always say ‘conditions will be tough out there, I bet you guys wish it were nice and smooth’, but the reality is that we like it rougher.  In 2019 we had a little chop on the day, so it wasn’t too bad – because it’s freshwater, the chop gives us some air under the boat and it doesn’t suck to the water, so we tend to be a little quicker.  In a perfect world if we could order the conditions this Sunday, we’d have a strong wind come in it’ll be a nice rough day on the water.  But whatever the conditions, we adapt and change our set up to suit, so let’s see what the day brings.

You came second in the 2019 UIM Class 1 Championship behind the Victory Team, but without them racing this year, how do you feel your chances are at taking the Championship?

We certainly had a strong end to the year in 2019 and we felt we were competitive in the latter races, so going into 2020, we were going to build on that momentum.  Of course, in 2020, the entire world came to a halt, and we were grounded in Australia.  With the gear left standing for two years without any attention, we’ve had some gremlins pop up in the boat and it cost us the win in Cocoa Beach.  But we’re starting to build that momentum again, but racing is certainly unpredictable, so anything can happen.  At this stage, we have as good a chance as any of the teams to take the Class 1 Championship – we’re all competitive, so it’s shaping up to be a good year here in the US.

Images supplied by P1 Offshore.

The Italian/Australian partnership of Giovanni Carpitella and Darren Nicholson secured 1st position in 222 Offshore at the opening round of the 2022 UIM XCAT World Championship. The team passed the flag in 3rd position, but 4 boats got DSQ for missing a turn. That made a huge effect on the podium. Promoted to 2nd place was Team GB and defending Worldchampion, Dubai Police rounded off the podium with 3rd place.

PowerboatracingWorld spoke to Carpitella after the race :

The two Abu Dhabi boats did the short lap twice, when I was leading the race they crossed in front of me. After lap 3 the race control told us to cancel the short lap, since one bouy was destroyed, witch they did not.

 

Even Darren and myself finished 3rd, we won the race, of cause they got DSQ

PowerboatracingWorld.com asked Shaun Torrente how he looked at it :

Me and Faleh posted pole, and won the race by over 40 sec. We did what we came here to do.

 

The race director changed the course during the race, and its evident, we won the race not because we took the short lap, even with a 30 sec penalty we would have won it today.

2nd round of the UIM XCat Worldchampionship will take place tomorrow, 6th of march with Pole position and round 2.