KBL keen to increase growing popularity of Malta GP

Malta is fast establishing itself as one of the most attractive venues for Powerboat P1 racing. The excitement that is already building up for this year's event, scheduled for the weekend of May 5 and 6, was palpable yesterday when the 2007 Malta GP was launched at the Valletta Waterfront.

Nathan Knight, chief executive officer of KBL Powerboat Management Limited, told a news conference that Malta has been one of the major contributors in making Powerboat P1 racing so successful over the past four years. This growth in popularity has made KBL more determined to attract more people to the sport in a bid to establish the Malta GP as the biggest sporting event held here on an annual basis.

"Malta is one of the most popular venues on the Powerboat P1 circuit," Knight said.

"Thanks to the valuable work of the Malta Tourism Authority and the local authorities, we have managed to improve the event as a whole in the past four years and it's no surprise that the Malta GP has become the longest-standing entry on our championship calendar.

"Still, we have plans to increase the popularity of this event."

Knight said that over the past few months, he has held talks with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi about KBL's need to have a permanent base in the Grand Harbour in order to promote the event even better.

"The Prime Minister encouraged us to look at various areas around the Grand Harbour where we could build our offices," Knight said.

"After lengthy considerations, we identified the Gateway Terminal as the ideal site for a 'wet area' where the competing boats are located during race weekends. The 'dry area', situated further inside the Gateway Terminal, will house our offices."

Although pleased with the attendances for the racing weekend in Malta over the past four years, Knight insisted that KBL want to attract more motor sport lovers to the event.

"My target is to have tens of thousands of people filling the Sliema seafront on race day besides coming down to Valletta to have a close look at the powerboats.

"To reach this goal, this month we are going to start an extensive marketing campaign in the local media to promote the Malta GP.

"In addition, we also have plans to stage Malta's annual boat fair on the GP weekend so as to generate more interest among the thousands of boat lovers in the country."

Knight also revealed that another issue he discussed with Dr Gonzi concerns the tax competitive boats are made to pay when they come to compete here.

"We are hopeful that the government will co-operate with us so that this tax is not imposed on our participants," Knight said.

Looking ahead to the 2007 season, Knight said that the championship, comprising 12 races, will start in Malta in May and ends in Algarve, Portugal on the last weekend of September. Around 18 to 20 teams are expected to compete in this year's championship which will once again be divided in two categories, Evolution and Supersport.

Team Chaudron, made up of Aaron Ciantar and his sister Audrien, are again set to lead Malta's challenge in the championship. Aaron Ciantar said that their target is "to win as many races as possible and at the same time increase the popularity of their brand boats".

This year, Team Chaudron's challenge has more than one dimension to its 2007 title assault. Whilst having new powerful engines installed on their powerboat, it was also revealed yesterday that Italian racer Angelo Tedeschi has confirmed that his team will compete with a Maltese-built Chaudron hull.

The Evolution Class, traditionally the domain of the 'muscle machines' of Italian crews, will include teams from Austria, Belgium, Britain and the US. These entries will be looking to challenge established Italian teams Fainplast, Kerakoll Kiton, OSG Donzi and Thuraya, for the overall title.

The main sponsors of the 2007 Malta GP are the Malta Tourism Authority, Air Malta, Viset Malta and the MCFF.