NEWS

Tuesday, 11 May: Jan Zaborowski will return to a frontline role in the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship at the Norwegian Grand Prix in Arendal, 16-18 July, as principal of a new team, with his son Christian making a welcome return to racing.

Zaborowski confirmed that he has reached an agreement with Jorn Tandberg, owner-throttleman of Welmax Offshore Racing, to run their second boat under new colours and as an independent team.  “The agreement with Jorn is a multi-year deal,” said Zaborowski senior, a familiar face in Class 1 circles, who was team manager of Ugland Offshore Racing for over a decade.  “Jorn retains ownership of the hardware, but as team principal of the new operation I have full control to manage and run the team independently.”

More details of the new operation will be revealed in the coming weeks, but Zaborowski already has the raceboat – the Maritimo designed and built hull that ran as Welmax Alianza in the season-opener in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – in his workshop in Asker, Norway.  “We will continue to run the boat with the Mercury V8 engines, but we will be looking to make several modifications and will be focussing on improving the overall balance and plan to test in the coming weeks.”

What is confirmed is that Christian Zaborowski, who played a cameo role in last year’s Championship, racing in Qatar with Jorn Tandberg and in Abu Dhabi and Dubai with Nicola Giorgi, will return to full-time race duties to take the throttles.  The team is currently holding talks with several drivers and will announce who will race alongside Christian in the near future.

An experienced racer with 26 Class 1 starts under his belt, Christian made his racing debut in 2004 in the ProVee European Championships, winning the Norwegian National title in the same year.  In 2005 he repeated the feat and added the European title.  He stepped up to Class 1 in 2005 grabbing his first of five podiums in Trondheim, his first Pole Position win in Dubai, taking his first race win with Jorn Tandberg in Arendal in 2006.