Wednesday, 24 January, Düsseldorf (Germany): The International Offshore Team Association (IOTA) has confirmed seven races, two new venues, a 12-boat entry and a raft of new marketing initiatives for the 2007 Class 1 World Powerboat Championship.
IOTA outlined details of the coming season at a press conference at the Düsseldorf Boat Show to launch this year’s championship, where IOTA Board Member and General Manager of the Victory Team, Gianfranco Venturelli, was joined by Saeed Hareb, President of the newly formed World Professional Powerboating Association (WPPA) and IOTA General Secretary, Marco Sala, who revealed Athens and Constanta, Romania, as the new venues, with Portorose-Piran and Oslo to be confirmed shortly. Arendal, Doha and Dubai complete the line-up with the first race of the season taking place in Greece’s capital city on 10 June. IOTA also confirmed it was holding on-going negotiations with three additional venues, with the strong possibility of increasing the calendar to ten races.
In addition to an extended calendar for 2007 that clearly demonstrates the continued and growing interest in the Class 1 World Powerboat Championship, IOTA confirmed a 12-boat entry including the participation of all of last year’s teams with Qatar, Victory and Veneta Marina-Duemme Offshore running two boats and Chris Parsonage Racing, Giorgioffshore, Ugland Offshore Racing and Spirit of Norway each running one, with confirmation of two new entries from the USA and Italy.
IOTA also announced three new marketing initiatives and long-term partnerships in Class 1, confirming the established Swiss watch manufacturer, EDOX, as the Official Timing Sponsor, the bespoke and luxury clothing brand, Cliff & Dune as the Official Clothing Supplier and that Nor-Tech, America’s leading high-performance boat manufacturer, will supply the championship with a Nor-Tech 3600 Supercat as the Official Pace Boat. |
2007 CALENDAR
8-10 June GREECE - Athens
20-22 July NORWAY - Arendal
31 August - 2 September ROMANIA - Constanta
8-10 November QATAR – Doha
15-17 November QATAR – Doha
29 November- 2 December U.A.E. - Dubai
6-8 December U.A.E. – Dubai
The following venues to be finalised:
29 June-1 July SLOVENIA – Portorose-Piran (tbc)
10-12 August NORWAY – Oslo (tbc)
(28-30 September RESERVE DATE
France, Villefranche or Italy, Syracuse or Spain, Gijon |
