Reigning P1 150 Champions Stuart and Sara Cureton (from Lindford, Hampshire) made a winning return to action in the opening round of the P1 SuperStock UK Championship in Plymouth over the weekend. The popular husband and wife team won two of the three rounds and finished second in the other race in their boat Team Purple.

Team Purple P1 150 powerboat

They possibly would have had a clean sweep but for accidentally pulling their kill chord close to the end of the second race. Although they got going again Team Purple was beaten to the winning post by father and daughter duo Vince and Jade Berridge (Hemel Hempstead) in Black Magic.

“The boat has been in our garage over the winter and we never took it out once, so it is a surprise to come to Plymouth and be just as fast as at the end of last season”, said Stuart. “We made a silly mistake pulling the kill chord by accident but I’m pleased to see Vince and Jade score their first win.”

Black Magic had been enjoying a very competitive race behind Team Purple, so deserved the little bit of luck that brought them their first P1 150 win. “We managed to keep up with Stu and Sara for most of the race but towards the end we started to lose them a bit, next we saw the white flag (last lap) and Sara signalled to us that they had pulled the kill switch so we flew right past them. It’s a fantastic start to the new season and it means I have to buy Jade a new pair of shoes which I promised her for every win!” commented Vince.

The best racing action was provided by Rose Lores (Stubbington) and Major Nigel Hindmarsh (London) who had three close encounters with the Macdonald Mermaid boat of husband and wife team David and Kirsty Toozs-Hobson (Arundel). In race one Mermaid finished in third place ahead of Eclipse but in race two Rose and Nigel fought back and edged out Mermaid. In the final race the combatants actually came together at the first mark allowing Mermaid to take the place, but race officials were unhappy with the contact and issued the team a yellow card.

Pertemps Mission Motorsport’s Mark Neale (Tidworth, Wilts) and Gav Harvey (Salisbury) came out on top in the battle between the newcomers by beating PowerTech Marine’s Sam Whittle (Hampton Hill) and Andy Streeting (Camberley) in all three encounters. The Plymouth event marked the first ever powerboat race for charity team Mission Motorsport which exists to help rehabilitate injured service men and women.

P1 SuperStock UK 150 Class provisional points:
1. Team Purple 57 points
2. Macdonald Mermaid 48
3. Black Magic 47
4. Ecplise 45;
5. Perteps Mission Motorsport 38
6. PowerTech Marine 35.