Chaudron confident of a strong home showing

Maltese watersports enthusiasts are set for a great treat this weekend when the UIM Powerboat P1 2006 World Championship gets underway with the Malta Grand Prix.

The 15 foreign-based teams in both the Evolution and SuperSport divisions arrived in Malta yesterday, meaning that this morning the Valletta Waterfront will be a hive of activity as the crews fine-tune their hulls ahead of tomorrow's opening round of the Malta GP.

The attention of the Maltese public will be centred on local team, Portomaso Chaudron, composed of Aaron Ciantar and his sister Audrien. The siblings are determined to improve on last year's overall third placing in the SuperSport Division.

In this year's championship, the Maltese team will race with a new 33-foot boat powered with two inboard 425 horsepower engines. Initial tests on the new boat yielded positive results, prompting Aaron Ciantar to declare that all seems in place for Portomaso Chaudron to fight for the top positions in this year's championship.

"We are entering this year's championship with a more competitive boat than previous years," he told reporters at what KBL Powerboat Management, organisers of this championship, labelled the 'Eve of Race' news conference at the Hilton Portomaso.

"Last season, we were unable to compete with our rivals in terms of top speed, but this year things promise to be different. We feel that we can be competitive in all the six rounds of the championship and that certainly gives us a lot of confidence ahead of the new season," Aaron Ciantar added.

For the Ciantar family, this weekend's Grand Prix has added importance as a good performance in their home race will provide a good advert for their powerboat factory as they look to make further breakthroughs in the European market.

"The Malta GP is an ideal window to promote our product and the best way to show how good our boat is by putting up a strong performance in the two-day event," Aaron Ciantar noted.

"Our father Charlie has worked really hard to provide us with a very competitive boat this year. It's our duty now to demonstrate the power and reliability of our boats with a good showing at the Malta Grand Prix."

The Malta GP schedule kicks off this afternoon when all teams in both the SuperSport and Evolution classes make their first bow in the sea for a 75-minute official testing session. At 6 p.m., the gates of the Valletta Waterfront will be open for the public to have a close look at the boats.

Racing programme

The racing programme officially starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. with an endurance race that takes participating teams to complete six laps of a 5.6 nautical mile course off the Sliema coastline.

After crossing the finish line they will tackle a 46.4 nautical mile circumnavigation of the island and hope for ideal conditions to beat the record set by Team Thuraya two years ago.

On Sunday, the Evolution Class boats will figure in a 10-lap 5.6 nautical mile rally, one lap more than SuperSport.

Nathan Knight, chief executive officer at KBL Management, admitted that the success of Team Chaudron in the Powerboat P1 championship in the last two years has been crucial in raising the profile of the Malta GP on the islands.

"Having a Maltese boat in the starting line-up attracts great interest in Malta," Knight said. "I think Team Chaudron's success has helped to make this GP one of the main sporting events in Malta.

"This year's race is the first under a new a three-year agreement we signed with the Malta Tourism Authority and so far we have received great support. We sincerely hope that Malta will remain on our calendar for many years to come."

This season's championship is made up of six rounds, all held in European countries. Asked whe-ther KBL were looking at the possibility of holding a grand prix outside the continent Knight responded: "That's one of our future goals. At the moment we have a number of contacts and we are working very hard to take P1 racing in as many venues around the world as we can.

"But everything needs time. Our target for 2007 is to increase the number of races on our calendar from six to seven. Interest in our sport is increasing steadily.

"This weekend we will have around 70 foreign journalists covering the Malta GP and that is a clear sign that Powerboat P1 racing is developing into a highly popular international event."