Ultra 30 Sunderland Grand Prix

by Ultra 30 News 14 Jun 1999 01:00 BST

DBS Slides Home to Smooth Sunderland Victory

The pressure gets to Greenhalgh, newcomer James Hunt nearly wins a race and a thousand spectators enjoy a day of vintage Ultra racing

Russell Peters and the crew of DBS showed their championship class on the final day of racing at the Sunderland Grand Prix, the first event of the 1999 Hoya Vision Care Ultra 30 Grand Prix Circuit. A close duel was in prospect at the beginning of the day when, with three races to sail, the young Rob Greenhalgh was on the attack.

Greenhalgh, sailing Team David McLean was just a point behind Peters and confident in himself, his crew and his boat speed. But a first race penalty put Greenhalgh under pressure. Unfortunate for Greenhalgh because it dropped him from second to last, while Peters on DBS was making a stunning recovery to work through the fleet from sixth to second.

"I was actually surprised he didn't have more of an eye on us as we were coming up through the fleet. He let us get away and after we passed him we clamped on him and didn't give him an opportunity to get back past. It was a crucial move because after that he seemed to be less smooth and more under pressure of our experience and from then in it was relatively easy."

DBS finished second in that fourth race and went on to win the last two races, the only surprise being a last minute burst of form from newcomer JIm Hunt who gave DBS a fight for the last race victory. For United Airlines it was a disappointing Series opening, a regatta where the crew marked their respect for the late Glyn Charles with the presentation of a special trophy struck here in Sunderland at the National Glass Centre.

Not much better for Kevin Sproul of Star Alliance who finished fifth, but encouraging early Series performance from Eddie Warden Owen sailing his brand new Team Hoya Ultra 30 launched only days before the first race.

Boat              Skipper           R1   R2   R3   R4   R5   R6  Pos Pts
                                          (Place / Points)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DBS               Russel Peters     2 5  1 6  1 6  2 5  1 6  1 6  1   34 
TEAM DAVID McLEAN Rob Greenhalgh    1 6  2 5  2 5  6 1  2 5  4 3  2   25 
TEAM HOYA         Eddie Warden Owen 5 2  3 4  3 4  1 6  3 4  3 4  3   24 
TEAM GUL          Jim Hunt          3 4  5 2  5 2  4 3  5 2  2 5  4   18 
STAR ALLIANCE     Kevin Sproul      4 3  4 3  4 3  5 2  4 3  6 1  5   15 
UNITED AIRLINES   Mark Rushall      6 1  6 1  6 1  3 4  6 1  5 2  6   10 

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