Welmax Offshore Racing has reaffirmed plans laid out in 2011 to run a two-boat line-up, with team newcomer Will Nocker optimistic that they will be back challenging for podium places by the time they roll out for their home Grand Prix in Larvik, Norway, in July.

Wellmax

Nocker, from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, steps-up into top-flight racing from competing in the Honda 225 UK championship and stints in P1 to take the wheel alongside the experienced Norwegian throttleman and team principal, Jorn Tandberg.

It is understood that the team has reached an agreement to lease a Victory boat from the Dubai outfit which the Anglo-Norwegian duo will run with V8s as the team’s number one boat.

Other plans remain fluid; the team will use the Maritimo hull as the second boat but the team is still to reveal the driver line-up, with the red MTI to be run as a test boat. Nocker has hinted that the team has plans to build two new boats in Norway as part of its long-term strategy.

It will be down to Tandberg to guide his rookie driver through what could well be a baptism of fire if plans to run longer offshore rougher race circuits at the season-opener in Doha, Qatar (March 15-17), are confirmed.

Tanberg is one of the most experienced of the current crop of stickmen in class 1; a veteran of 54 races, he made his Class 1 debut in 2005 taking his first podium at the Norwegian Grand Prix in Trondheim and first Pole Position win in Dubai.

His first race win came in Arendal in 2006 and his second and third in Arendal and Constanta in 2008 to win the European Championship with Inge Brigt Aarbakke, to confirm his position as one of the sport’s top throttlemen. In 2011 he and Kolbjorn Selmer dominated in qualifying winning five times to win the Edox Pole Position Championship.

For more details see the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship pages.