Image: PowerboatGP/Bryan Scott

This bank holiday weekend (28 – 29 May) the 2017 Powerboat GP RYA Championships head to Oulton Broad for the second round of the 2017 championship campaign culminating in six champions claiming the Lowestoft GP crown.

Champions will travel the length and breadth of Britain for the all important championship points. Six individuals threw down the gauntlet at the opening round of the championship in Lancashire earlier this month and they will all be looking to hold on to their championship leads whilst many of the fleet will be launching a battle of immense proportion to secure the championship top spot.

One of the thrilling battles at the Lancashire Grand Prix came in the GT15 class from Britain’s Harvey Smith who on home water secured his first British Grand Prix win. However youngster George Elmore and the influx of new talent moving up the ranks in the form of Ethan Goodfellow, Aidan Fleet and Caleb Jelf will be looking to upset the apple cart for Harvey early on a battle that should not be missed.

Goodfellow’s sister Tiegen will be looking to stop local young gun Thomas Mantripp in his tracks in the GT30 class. The Lowestoft youngster Thomas secured his first GT30 Grand Prix win following a retirement from the GT15 class in 2017. But the plucky young female racer Tiegen Goodfellow, rival Jonathan Brewer and Jack Pickles are going to make work very hard for the youngster through the 2017 season.

Making a come back in the T850 class former champion Mark Williams has laid down the gauntlet to his fellow monohull competitors acing all three heats at Lancashire for a clean sweep to claim the Lancashire GP title. This championship campaign is about to get furious and faster as Bill Owen and Nigel Edwards try to stop the local racer Williams in his tracks.

Reigning OSY400 Champion Jason Mantripp will be hoping to deliver his rivals a masterclass on their home water but with big challenges coming in from Jamie Marr, Wayne Moyse and Brad Holman they will all be piling on the pressure hoping to force Mantripp to make a mistake.

The absence of reigning champion Sam Whittle in the F4 class has left the door wide open for former champion Ben Morse to claim the top spot but with adversaries Rob Veares and Ben Jelf on his wake at every turn the action is only going to get more exciting as the season progresses and with strong performances from Mike Pillow, Leon King and newcomer Martin Wood only time will tell who can fight their way to the 2017 F4 crown.

But as always one of the biggest battles that looks set to go down to the wire again this season comes in the form of the F2 Championship. Former British and World Champion Colin Jelf secured the championship lead following the Powerboat GP Lancashire Grand Prix from reigning champion Paul Balfour and with former British champion Steve Hoult and international young gun Matt Palfreyman right in the mix the challenge for the big cats is on and it’s going to be immense.

Powerboat GP promoter Luke Jones has this to say about the forthcoming Lowestoft Grand Prix “Lancashire kicked the season off in style but many teams have gone away spent even more time on the water training and are now looking to book their place on the podium.”

He continued “Many teams left the Lancashire Grand Prix with room for improvement and now they know what they’re up against they know where they need to improve to stop our early championship leaders and we can’t wait for the action to unfold over the bank holiday on the broads. Oulton Broad provides exhilarating end to end action for every class in the championship and this weekend promises to be no different.”

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