‘Dream’ pair hoping for better luck at Cascais GP

After this weekend, the XCAT extravaganza will be on the move to a new continent for the fourth round in Australia’s Gold Coast in August.

T-Bone Station have plenty of catching up to do in the UIM XCAT World Powerboat Series. — Supplied photo

Dubai — This weekend’s third round of the UIM XCAT World Powerboat Series in Cascais, Portugal, will see Italy’s Giovanni Carpitella joining up with countryman Marco Pennesi in T-Bone Station for the first time.

After this weekend, the XCAT extravaganza will be on the move to a new continent for the fourth round in Australia’s Gold Coast in August and then Nice, France in October before the final two rounds take place in the UAE in November.

The pair have raced against each other many times but never in the same boat — something that Carpitella is looking forward to immensely after his regular driver, Ahmed Al Hameli, was unavailable for this race. “I’ve known Marco for a long time. And we’ve been fighting in P1 for a long time and it was a sort of dream to race together one time,” explained Carpitella.

“We have known each other since 2001 racing always in different things and he was always driving and I was throttling and then, joking, we would say what if we could sit inside the same cockpit? What do you think would happen? Because he is a good driver — everybody says — and I think I am a good throttle, and maybe it’s a good combination.”

The combination will certainly be put to the test this weekend. T-Bone Station have plenty of catching up to do in the overall series after mechanical problems ruled them out of both of the first two races of the season, when they were in promising podium positions.

“We have fixed everything again and hopefully this time we don’t have any bad luck,” said a confident Carpitella.

“Even though it looks like it, I don’t think it’s very flat here. I think sometimes it is rough here because I have raced in Portugal two or three times and it’s never been flat. So we’ll see. I think it will be interesting racing.”

That it certainly will with action set to get underway on Friday and the main race, the Cascais GP scheduled for Sunday at 3pm.