Tønsberg Båtrace

06/08/2024

Some Formula 2-pics from JPM Foto

04/08/2024

Day two :)

04/08/2024

Takk til Brygga i Tønsberg

04/08/2024

Just a small snap shot of what happened this afternoon here in Norway at the Tønsberg Båtrace, Round Two of the UIM 2024 F2 World Championship. Photos: Chris Davies.

04/08/2024

Congratulations Winners!

04/08/2024

Race start !

04/08/2024

ITS FINALLY RACEDAY ! 👇

04/08/2024

04/08/2024

Sindre Sundsdal Anundsen did not Even dream of topping the result list, in a tie with Hilmer Wiberg after day 1 of Tønsberg Boatrace, each scoring 525 points.

2nd is another tie, Nathaniel Ek did what he planned. Stayed out of troubble and walked away in heat 1 with full score. William Martinsen was in P2 off the dock, but made a huge mistanke and took out Pole sitter Solvang on the first corner. Both scored 0 points.

2nd heat Nathaniel Ek started in P1, but when Solvang laid pressure on him, going into the first corner he lost out and crashed into his Sharjah team - The race was over for Ek. Martinsen benefitted and won the heat. 2nd overall is now EK and Martinsen with both 400 points, but EK’s weekend is over - and in heat 3 Martinsen starts in P1.

The suprice is that the leader of the UIM F4 Worldchampionship points table, Andre Solvang only have 169 points. Not how the drive expected it to be.

3rd heat starts 11.45

Www.tbg-race.com

📸 Chris Davies

03/08/2024

Tønsberg Båtrace, Xpert F2 Qualifying.

If you asked Guido Cappellini who his sporting hero is he will tell you that it is in fact Sir Ron Dennis CBE who was the mastermind behind the success of McLaren in Formula 1. From his humble beginnings to his iconic leadership Dennis was the driving force behind the teams rise to prominence in the world of motorsport through brilliant innovations and the relentless pursuit of excellence. Only last month McLaren had both their drivers on the front row of the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix, their first in twelve years.

Now it's Cappellini’s turn to celebrate a ‘front row lock-out’ of sorts as for the first time ever Team Abu Dhabi drivers will start from first and second on the grid for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Norway, Round Two of the UIM F2 World Championship. The Italian maestro was quick to praise his whole team by saying, ‘We have all worked really hard to put that smile back on Rashed Al Qemzi’s face.’

The four times UIM F2 World Champion Al Qemzi is experienced enough to know that the job is only half done but was genuinely pleased to have his team-mate Mansoor Al Mansoori alongside him when the boats line up on Sunday afternoon.

For Al Mansoori, who so narrowly missed the pole position, there was almost a sense of relief about him because he was able to repay the team that had worked seven days a week often through the night for just one month to deliver a brand-new DAC hull which he was able to put to excellent use.

‘Guido and I sat down and together; we designed a hull to my exact specifications. I now have a boat that I have one hundred per cent trust in, the previous one I raced was built for Al Qemzi and of course he is smaller and lighter than me. Now we are both ready to fight because the championship is still wide open.’

Not for the first time it will be a DAC one, two, three on the start grid, the only surprise being that its Jarno Vilmunen who occupies that third spot. The 2023 World and European UIM F4 World Champion admitted that he loved this type of course with its sharp turns and mixed water conditions. He described it as a circuit designed to be driven and not one where you need just flat-out speed, to give you an idea of the Finns talent his DAC was built in 2005. ‘I am not sure how much closer I could have got to the UAE racers as just after I set my best lap time the following lap was looking much better but then I ran out of fuel and had to be towed back in.’

Another driver making their Tønsberg debut was Mathilda Wiberg who knew all about Vilmunen having raced against him on many occasions back in her F4 days. ‘He was always the driver to beat’ said Wiberg. ‘Whether it was at the Finnish or Nordic Championships I thoroughly enjoyed my battles with him. That’s where we both developed our race craft in boats that were very well matched, so it’s going to be fun starting alongside him. I have watched races here before and I know that getting a good starting position is so crucial for your race, in fact I woke up this morning feeling extremely nervous about today, now I’m feeling a whole lot better.’

Edgaras Riabko was another relieved racer after he qualified in fifth place. The Lithuanian driver had struggled throughout the mornings Free Practice session with an engine way down on power. The team then swapped it over with his spare Optimax motor and Riabko was all set to go. The only issue was that due to his earlier issues he had been unable to select the correct propeller to use.

‘When I went out to qualify, I almost had to guess which one to use. Then during Q3 I had a clearer idea so half way through that session I came back into the pontoon to swop the prop over. In making that call unfortunately I ran out of time to get the best result out of it.’

Also struggling with prop choice was Mette Bjerknæs, she went for better acceleration which sacrificed her top end speed. ‘I gave it my all’ said Bjerknæs ‘it was good enough for sixth place and if the water is as rough as the last time, we raced here then I know I have the hull to cope with those type of conditions.’

Sat alongside Bjerknæs in the pits was the current championship leader Matthew Palfreyman, who was quietly seething inside. ‘Nineth place is the best I’ve ever qualified here and yet I’m still annoyed.’ His frustration was a result of having his best lap ruined by another driver. ‘I kept saying to myself he’s going to move over, he’s going to move over, then at the last minute he shut the door on me and I only just missed the rear of his APX engine.’

The Grand Prix of Norway will get under way at 15:00 local time and let's just hope that with only ten laps to go to the chequered that Cappellini doesn’t have to make a call.

03/08/2024

Pole Position - https://time4.racing/round/uim-f2-world-championship-2024-xpert-grand-prix-of-norway/results
Photo © Jon Petter Marthinsen / JPM Foto

03/08/2024

Boys will be buoys at the Tønsberg Båtrace. I wonder who is teaching Sindre and Obaid to race......no comment😂.

03/08/2024

David del Pin likes to make a splash on his return to the Tønsberg Båtrace, Round Two of the 2024 UIM F2 World Championship. Nicely held sir. Photos: Chris Davies.

03/08/2024

Nathaniel EK won the first heat in F4 after Polesitter Andre Solvang was taken out by boat # 8, William Martinsen - in an first corner accident. William got DQ and Solvang had to retire.

P1 : Nathaniel EK
P2 : Sindre Sundsdal
P3 : Obaid Bin Mubarak
P4 : Hilmer Wiberg
P5 : Alia Abdul Salam

03/08/2024

Duarte Benavente and Egidijus Dagilis challenge each other for the same drop of water during the Free Practice session at the Tønsberg Båtrace, Round Two of the 2024 UIM F2 World Championship. Photos: Chris Davies.

03/08/2024

03/08/2024

Congrats to the SPEED RUN Winner Tobias Munthe Kaas. P2 Duarte Benavente🇵🇹 and P3 Nelson Morin 🇫🇷

02/08/2024

The future Music ✅

An APX Experience.

It’s probably fair to say that the days of the UIM F2 World Championship racing teams using the Mercury Optimax engine as their power source are rapidly diminishing and that the Mercury Racing 200 APX V6 four-stroke outboard designed with the UIM F2 and APBA OPC series in mind will become mandatory. The question is when will it happen?

One of those teams who decided to go the route of the environmentally friendly engine are the Latvian based Jurmala Racing Team. When they arrived at the opening round of this years championship with a brand new ASV hull and APX engine for their driver Nikita Lijcs they certainly caught everyone’s attention.
‘We actually started this project two years ago’ said Lijcs. ‘A future without the Optimax is just around the corner and I wanted to be ready as fast as possible with its replacement.’

Lijcs has been a factory driver for Hungarian ASV company since 2014 and over that ten-year period he’s developed an excellent working relationship with Alexandr Scserbinyin, the main man behind the acronym. He regularly speaks to him and it was agreed that the raceboat building company would with input from Lijcs design and build a hull capable of running the new power unit.

The Jurmala based team tried to keep the whole project under wraps but knew eventually that they would have to break cover to carry out testing. So the new boat finally made its public debut at the opening round of the Latvian Championship held on the banks of Lielupe. The F2 category would consist of two ‘local’ racers Nikita Lijcs and Dainis Podžuks, as well as the former F2 European Champion Uvis Slakteris from Bauška. Everything was going as planned until an unexpected storm broke out which forced the organisers of the event to make an immediate decision to stop the competition after just two heats. It was enough though to convince the team that they had made the right decision to go with the APX.

‘The data we got that weekend showed we had the acceleration and speed that we had hoped for, this was backed up when we compared those results with the ones we had when we ran the Optimax. Having a brand-new hull designed for the engine and not adapting an old one to use certainly helped us.’

The team didn’t have long before they were at the opening round of this year's F2 World Championship and throughout the weekend they still had a list of small technical issues to deal with. In the race itself Lijcs had to drive thirty-eight laps without any power steering.
‘My body was done after that race’ he said. ‘As soon as I was back I headed straight to my physio for a massage.’

The driver certainly needed some work but they were extremely pleased to report that the engine had surpassed their expectations including posting a few fast lap times during the Sunday morning practice. All of this data is being analysed by Mercury Racing back in the US and the team have had several conversations with Strømøy Racing who are running an APX four-stroke in the F1H2O series.

‘It feels really great to have Mercury Racing involved, although we are far from being a ‘factory’ team’ said Lijcs. ‘We are open to share the basic knowledge in running the APX, sure we are not going to share all of our secrets. We even had the UIM Technical Commissioners taking a very close look at the engine when we were in Italy. I told them that the four-stroke is actually really easy to work with and that there are more positives than negative one when you run this engine. We are a small budget team with big ambitions for the future which with this engine we know it will be a bright one.

02/08/2024

Al Qemzi Snatches Gold.

The four times UIM F2 World Champion Rashed Al Qemzi has wasted no time in letting the opposition know that he’s hungry for success this weekend when he drove in dominate fashion to claim the Match Race honours on the opening day of the Tønsberg Båtrace, Round Two of the 2024 World Championship.

He posted his best time of just over one minute in the final heat crossing the finish line just ahead of Mathilda Wiberg in her slightly battered Molgaard. In the previous heat the young Swede had seen off Al Qemzi’s Team Abu Dhabi team-mate Mansoor Al Mansoori but heading back to the start pontoon she misjudged her approach speed and slightly damaged her left-hand pickle fork.

It was a Battle of the Brit’s for third place when Matt Palfreyman, fresh from his opening round success last month in Italy came up against Scott Curtis. The British pair had earlier seen off the challenges of local hero Tobias Munthe-Kass and the extremely quick Edgaras Riabko. The Bronze medal eventually went to Palfreyman who crossed the finish line less than two seconds ahead of Curtis.

02/08/2024

Its a wrap 🥰🤩

https://www.f2worldchamp.com/2024-season/gp-norway/

02/08/2024

Just a few action images from the Friday afternoon Match Race and Speed Run warm up session. Photos: Chris Davies.

02/08/2024

Wow - we are on !

02/08/2024

An APX Experience.

It’s probably fair to say that the days of the UIM F2 World Championship racing teams using the Mercury Optimax engine as their power source are rapidly diminishing and that the Mercury Racing 200 APX V6 four-stroke outboard designed with the UIM F2 and APBA OPC series in mind will become mandatory. The question is when will it happen?

One of those teams who decided to go the route of the environmentally friendly engine are the Latvian based Jurmala Racing Team. When they arrived at the opening round of this year's championship with a brand new ASV hull and APX engine for their driver Nikita Lijcs they certainly caught everyone’s attention.

‘We actually started this project two years ago’ said Lijcs. ‘A future without the Optimax is just around the corner and I wanted to be ready as fast as possible with its replacement.’

Lijcs has been a factory driver for Hungarian ASV company since 2014 and over that ten-year period he’s developed an excellent working relationship with Alexandr Scserbinyin, the main man behind the acronym. He regularly speaks to him and it was agreed that the raceboat building company would with input from Lijcs design and build a hull capable of running the new power unit.

The Jurmala based team tried to keep the whole project under wraps but knew eventually that they would have to break cover to carry out testing. So, the new boat finally made its public debut at the opening round of the Latvian Championship held on the banks of Lielupe. The F2 category would consist of two ‘local’ racers Nikita Lijcs and Dainis Podžuks, as well as the former F2 European Champion Uvis Slakteris from Bauška. Everything was going as planned until an unexpected storm broke out which forced the organisers of the event to make an immediate decision to stop the competition after just two heats. It was enough though to convince the team that they had made the right decision to go with the APX.

‘The data we got that weekend showed we had the acceleration and speed that we had hoped for, this was backed up when we compared those results with the ones we had when we ran the Optimax. Having a brand-new hull designed for the engine and not adapting an old one to use certainly helped us.’

The team didn’t have long before they were at the opening round of this year's F2 World Championship and throughout the weekend they still had a list of small technical issues to deal with. In the race itself Lijcs had to drive thirty-eight laps without any power steering.
‘My body was done after that race’ he said. ‘As soon as I was back, I headed straight to my physio for a massage.’

The driver certainly needed some work but they were extremely pleased to report that the engine had surpassed their expectations including posting a few fast lap times during the Sunday morning practice. All of this data is being analysed by Mercury Racing back in the US and the team have had several conversations with Strømøy Racing who are running an APX four-stroke in the F1H2O series.

‘It feels really great to have Mercury Racing involved, although we are far from being a ‘factory’ team’ said Lijcs. ‘We are open to share the basic knowledge in running the APX, sure we are not going to share all of our secrets. We even had the UIM Technical Commissioners taking a very close look at the engine when we were in Italy. I told them that the four-stroke is actually really easy to work with and that there are more positives than negative one when you run this engine. We are a small budget team with big ambitions for the future which with this engine we know it will be a bright one.

02/08/2024

Raceday is here !