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CS Santosh's Team Clinches Inaugural P1 Powerboat Indian GP Title
British P1 Powerboat Superstock Champs, Sam and Daisy Coleman aced both the races on day 1 and 2.
The inaugural Nexa P1 Powerboat GP, India's first powerboat championship, couldn't have had a better debut. The three-day event makes no provision for individual winners; the tournament rewards the team with the highest total points.
The qualifiers on Friday saw the top three contestants within 1sec of each other, the leaders Sam and Daisy Coleman from Baleno RS Booster Jet team, leading the second position by just 0.1sec.
The brother-sister pair began Saturday's 15-lap race one at Marine Drive fighting hard with powerboat 99 (Pilot: Henry Norvall-UK, Navigator: Kevin Norvall-UK). But, within the first lap, the duo managed to move ahead of the lot and went on to command race one far ahead of boats 99 and 21 (Pilot: Craig Daniel Wilson-UK, Navigator: William Enriquez-USA).
A sustained supremacy by Daisy and Sam Coleman, complemented by efficient driving of Indian debut pilot, CS Santosh with navigator Martin Robinson, put the Baleno RS Booster Jets at the top of the inaugural USD 1,25,000 NEXA P1 Powerboat, Indian Grand Prix of the Seas.
Commenting on his, C. S. Santosh, the only Indian to feature and finish the Dakar Rally twice, said, "The last two days have been a bit of a struggle, but today, I seemed to have a much better handling of the boat, and I was enjoying myself and having a lot more fun today. I think we did a good job today."
The three top finishes for the brother-sister pair and CS Santosh' eight place finish in the third race and his remarkable eight and ninth position finish in the first and second race respectively ensured that the Baleno RS Booster Jets ended as the winning team with 89 points and a cheque of USD 50,000.
Competing in the event along with Santosh was compatriot Gaurav Gill, who won the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in 2016.
Gill, starting fifth on the grid, got himself to the third position at one point in the third race, only for the engine bracket to come loose in his P1 Panther boat on the 10th lap. The 35-year-old was forced to lessen speed to avoid dropping out of the race, yet still managed to finish fifth in the overall standings. The Indian pair had begun practising for their first ever Powerboat competition just two months before the contest.
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