Nigel Hook UIM Powerboat GPS 2010 Malta Grand Prix of the Sea - 2010.06.11

77 LUCAS OIL Scandinavian Offshore Challenge takes Silver Medal at the Maltese Grand Prix of the Sea

"Local Teen Saves the Day!"

Robert Bugeja, a native Maltese teenager, spent the "best week of my life" at the Maltese Grand Prix of the Sea as a volunteer crewing with the 77 LUCAS OIL Scandinavian Offshore Challenge race team. Saturday was a special day - Rob got to meet the Prime Minister of Malta, Lawrnce Gonzi, who came to tour the pits and thank the team for traveling so far. On Sunday Rob got to shine - he never dreamt he would be the one to save the day. But he did just that when he used his local connections to secure a critical bearing the boat needed for Sunday's race. As a result, the team's performance in the Sunday Endurance race enabled them to take 2nd place overall in the standings.



A strong finish in Sunday's Round 4 Endurance race was crucial for the 77 LUCAS OIL SOC after taking 3rd place in Saturday's Round 3 Sprint in the UIM World Championship. "In our practice before the Saturday race, we had taken two extra laps to get a lock on the water conditions," said team captain Nigel Hook. "We were running well across the 5-foot seas, but since we expected Saturday's waves to keep getting taller, we went with our smallest propeller selection."

When the time came for Saturday's green flag, however, the waves had dropped to barely two footers, leaving the 77 LUCAS OIL SOC severely under-propped. They struggled to stay competitive in the back straightaways, but tight turns on the course played well for driver Michael Silverberg who was pleased with the stellar cornering capabilities of the 40' Mannerfelt monohull, hanging onto a 3rd place finish.

Sunday was the chance to show what the boat could really do, but vibrations felt during the afternoon test spelled trouble. Crew Chief Nico Bertels from Belgium determined the fix was replacement bearings, if they could be found. They searched without success, seemingly exhausting all options, when Rob stepped in with his family and local connections to acquire the bearings. They were back in the game.



The team's live streaming video from the pits gave fans watching from afar a look at the team's struggle to get the 77 LUCAS OIL SOC ship-shape. Visable was chief engineer Craig Archer making things happen in spite of a knee injury suffered at the Auckland airport. As luck would have it, on hand to inspect his injury was Dr. Sarah Henderson, who is the owner of the Malta Lucas Oil Distributor and also an M.D. at the local hospital. Sarah founded the Lucas Oil Distributorship there in 2005 and recently expanded into Libya and Tunisia.

At the end of the day, the top three positions on Sunday's podium were 1st place Issoto Diesel-powered 60 Metamarine Foresti & Saurdi (Italian entry, driver Giampaolo Montavoci), 2nd place Ilmor-powered 77 Lucas Oil Scandinavian Offshore Challenge (Swedish entry, driver Michael Silfverberg), and 3rd place 66 Cranefields Wine (German entry, driver Sigi Greve).

77 LUCAS OIL SOC now holds 2nd place standings in the European Championship and 5th place in the UIM World Championship.

Conventional global television coverage of the event is courtesy Chris Courteyn TV, renowned for World Rally. Television production for the new UIM World Championship series is captured with 1 stabilized webcam on a helicopter recording in XDcam, 3 ENG camera crews on XDcam broadcast cameras, and 5 cameras onboard the boats. Shows are distributed for transmission to Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Australia, and the Middle East.

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