Wyatt looks to carry on momentum in Vietnam
BINH DỊNH: All 18 drivers have safely arrived in Vietnam and the nine race teams are making their final preparations for Sunday morning’s inaugural Grand Prix of Binh Dinh-vietnam on Thi Nai Bay in the city of Quy Nhon.
While the likes of Team Vietnam’s Jonas Andersson and Stefan Arand have been in situ for several days, acclimatising to the climate and overcoming any time zone-induced jet lag, others have let it late to arrive from all corners of the world with four flights needed in some cases. Canada’s Rusty Wyat is the surprise leader of the UIM F1H2O World Championship ater the opening round and he didn’t check in to the sponsoring Fleur de Lys Hotel in Quy Nhon until early on Wednesday aternoon.
Championship leader Wyat added: “First off, I am really happy to be here in Vietnam for my first race here and to see a local team here. That’s quite cool. The climate is quite different. Where I come from in Ontario, it’s currently -5°C and it’s quite hot here. That takes a bit of geting used to. The race course here is going to be a litle bit different. It’s on the sea, of course, and we had freshwater in Indonesia. Coming out of there with the win, I guess there’s a bit of pressure on but I think we are going to perform quite good here. We’ve done a bit of homework in the short time we have had and I really hope we can come out with a strong finish. It’s a beautiful place. It’s my first time here in Vietnam. We are enjoying it..”
Tocombatanypotentialweather-relateddelays and to alleviate a lot of the problems associated with racing in the intense heat and humidity of the aternoons in Quy Nhon, the timetable has been designed so that the on-water action takes place in the mornings.
Wyat’s Sharjah Team manager is four-time World Champion Scot Gillman. The American said: “The city here is very nice. The beaches and the hotel are perfect. We are very happy. I like the idea of racing in the mornings. We did it at the last race in Indonesia. It’s nice to be able to pack up easily at the end of the day as well. You have to go where the conditions allow you to run and it’s safe to run in the mornings. Unfortunately, Filip (Roms) had an accident on Lake Toba, so the guys have been working since Tuesday morning repairing his boat. We’ve almost got it done now and should have everything ready to go.”
Other, like the F1 Atlantic Team’s Duarte Benavente and Ben Jelf, arrived in a team group on Monday and have been experiencing the local cuisine when not working hard to ready the two boats for the weekend’s racing and adjusting to the heat and humidity.
“This is the things that dreams are made of,” said Jelf. “The team has been working hard as always and we proved in Indonesia that we have the pace, so now we can build on that and hopefully secure more championship points and begin to reap the rewards for the hard work. Every time I get in the boat and on the water, I learn something new. The boat felt really good in Indonesia, so I will be looking for a good result on Sunday morning. The people have been really nice here.”