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Posted on Friday, 13 June 2008 03:46PM by Adrian While

New 2008 Buildbase boat debut in Torquay       After a disappointing 2007 season suffering both structural breakages to the boat and mechanical failures to the engine, the new 2008 Buildbase Boat carried its new livery and the greatly improved 2008 225 Honda engine making its debut at the first of five Honda Formula 4 Stroke meetings in Torquay. In addition this year there will be a three man crew of Kevin Marshall (owner and driver), Mark Cockman (new driver) and Adam Form (navigator) due to Kevin's involvement in the Round Britain Offshore Powerboat Race due to start on 21st June.   The new format for racing this year involved a heat system of group A and B which involved the first five boats from the heats qualifying for Group A and the five slower boats from the heats qualifying for Group B.   The Torquay race as per last year was extremely rough perhaps to the limit of the 225's capability, however Mark and Adam raced exceptionally well to qualify in first position in the heat taking them into Group A in the first of the races which was points related for the championship.   As the seas worsened it was questionable whether the race would continue, however pressure from both drivers and navigators for the race to continue saw the late starting of the race for the top ten fastest boats in Group A amidst a swelling of around 3/4ft on the open sea.   Kevin and Mark got an excellent start in the Buildbase boat and were fourth in the first turn buoy; however boats pressured for the first couple of laps to the rear and the Buildbase boat held these off.  On the fourth lap Team Williams which were in front of the Buildbase boat snapped their engine mountings which gave the Buildbase boat third position.  We were pressuring the second place boat and were in a strong position to pass them when the race was red flagged and stopped due to dolphins on the course.   The Buildbase boat finished its first race in third place and obtained 15 points for the championship.   The Sunday race which was due to go ahead early in the afternoon had rumours of being stopped due to severe winds and therefore would be unreasonable to race.  At that point the safety officials said the race would not go ahead and boats were craned out of the water.  However by 1.00 p.m. events completely reversed, the sun came out, the sea was calm and the race could have commenced had half of the competitors not gone home. This left the Buildbase boat with 15 points and third place within the championship going in to the next race in Plymouth on 14th/15th June.         For further information on the Honda Formula 4 Stroke Powerboat Series go to http://www.honda-racing.co.uk