V24 Invitation Race - Arendal Norway - Friday 16 July

With just a couple of races under their belts, Marc Lamont and his navigator girlfriend Ana Banet pulled out all the stops to finish 3rd on Friday in Arendal, Norway in the V24 invitation race.

With three of the V24s unable to get to the venue in time, courtesy of Fjiord Line ferries, it was decided to run the race as a 'no points invitation race' to put on a show for the waiting spectators. The six V24s ran a simple course down the inlet from Arendal and managed to produce highly entertaining and exciting racing.

Husband and wife team, Mark and Odette Priestley (V16 Express Logistics) took the lead fairly early on and held onto it to the finish line. Mark Pascoe and Peter Phillipson (V11 Sportrib.com) were hot on their heels and with the rest of the fleet closely bunched it was anyone's race for 2nd and 3rd.

Marc Lamont and Ana Banet (V69) started at the back but gained confidence with every lap and were soon battling with Pascoe and Phillipson for second place. Lamont did finally manage to gain ground and had his chance to overtake coming down the final straight. However, he was unable to get past Pascoe's efforts to block him and despite their valiant efforts V69 had to make do with 3rd place.

'It was good to see a new team getting up the front and giving the more experienced drivers a run for their money,' commented V24 promoter Charles Gardiner. 'We have a few new teams coming into the series and it is very encouraging to see that with a bit of effort they can soon be putting on a good performance.'

Tom Powell and Danielle Strawford (V7 Playfair Offshore) used the race to test their new props and, having lost significant speed running most of the race at the back of the fleet, decided that it was back to the drawing board with them!

V8 Jaguar Racing (Ted Mannerfelt and Richard Agnew) and V1 Lamco Design (Martyn Weeks and Jason Nichols had a competitive race without risking any damage to their boats prior to Sunday's European Championship race.

Results:

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