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Any
one who as ever tried to introduce something new to a market place will
sympathize with its difficulties.
Introducing a new powerboat event with a new radically designed craft to
a market, which doesn’t accept change too easily was always going to be
challenging to say the very least.
However the 1st weekend in December 2007 presented a great
platform to launch this new concept. In
the rapidly developing City of Swansea, South Wales, (UK), thousands of motor
racing fans visiting the Wales RallyGB service park and had the opportunity of
seeing the Viper ‘Rally on Water’ Concept for the first time. The 14’ Viper jet boat with its 175hp
Mercury power plant thrilled the crowd with its outstanding acceleration and
unmatched manoeuvrability.
A
water based rally stage was set up using an area of approximately a football
 stadium, then Viper invited 2 powerboat drivers (representing the powerboat
world), a rally driver who had only driven the boat once before and a National
Motor Cycle Champion who had never driven the boat before (representing the
petrol heads). At the end of the first
round Mark Fox (Powerboats) set the fastest time with Chris Morris (Motor Cycle
Champion) in second place. As the race
stages progressed the lead chopped and changed with stage times continuously
improving and by the end of the first days competition only 3 seconds separated
the front 4 drivers. Also invited to
take part was Jackie Hunt with co-driver and husband Mike, but unfortunately
illness kept Jackie from competing, but know doubt an opportunity will present
itself to see what a World Champion can do at the wheel of the Viper.
Sunday
weather conditions were not looking good, however after a drivers meeting they
were all happy to race, the race arena although pretty well sheltered started
to look a little choppy. With the
attitude that the conditions where the same for everyone 6 more stages were ran
on the Sunday with stage times getting even closer, the final stage times was
separated by only 1.8 seconds with Mark Fox taking the outright win, Chris
Morris second, Will Foggerty (Powerboat) third and Michael Weeks (Rally driver)
fourth, with only 0.8 of a second separating 3rd & 4th
. Michael Tucker the designer of the boat and company Managing Director said “I expected Mark to do well as he has
had more experience behind the wheel of the Viper than any of the others, but
the dark horse was Chris, much as
Chris is an Isle of Man new comers motorcycle champion, changing his wheels for
keels I was very surprised at his stage times.
Will again I knew would be competitive and with more time behind the
wheel would clearly improve his time. Michael although finishing 4th
set 2 fastest stage times but I felt was trying a little too hard and did spin
out on a few occasions, costing him valuable seconds but was clearly a crowd
pleaser”
Running
individually against the clock the event does not offer overtaking and boat to
boat contact, however towards the end of every stage the crowds eyes were fixed
at the timing clock and their reaction clearly showed the Viper ‘Rally on
Water’ concept is going to make for a great event.
Michael also said “It was amazing to see the rally fraternity taking such interest and
being so impressed, our reception desk within the Viper Marquee was in constant
demand and we received over 400 requests for further information” he went
on to say “I was never certain who this
event would appeal to, was it the petrol heads because they understand the race
concept or was it to be the powerboat fraternity due to the very fact we are a
boat performing a racing discipline, currently the petrol heads are winning,
having said that, rallying is far more
popular than power boating here in the UK.”
Over
the launch weekend the Viper team were invited to demonstrate the event over in the USA
alongside their National Jet Ski Championship, a great opportunity as rallying
in the USA is no where near as popular as powerboating and will be very
interesting to see what our American cousins make of it all.
“We have plans for2008 to
showcase the event and build up a championship as interest demands, and
introducing 200hp in to the craft to replace the 175hp power plant. I feel the greatest advantage we have over powerboating
and rallying, is the cost, the very fact that our competing boats run
individually against the clock it makes for an opportunity that friends can get
together, share the cost of the boat, yet all can compete. Not many sports offer this and of course
when you get it hopelessly wrong you have the facility of blaming your
co-driver who although plays a vital role in
navigating the driver through
the race stage within the water based arena, will always be a scapegoat.”
With
global warming appearing in virtually every conversation and man made CO2 getting
the blame for all types of weather conditions hot, cold or wet, Vipers’ plans
are to run a championship fuelled by 100% bio ethanol and are working with Ex -
Head of Design at Cosworth Geoff Goddard
with the conversion of its race
engines. “we do not envisage the bio
ethanol race ready engine to be ready much before 2009, however early R&D
is looking very promising”
Along
side the introduction of this new race discipline Viper is launching its 20’
Family sports boat the Viper Silhouette, which was shown for the first time in
the Viper Marquee during the Wales RallyGB weekend. The 4.3Ltr inboard Mercruiser with Alpha Drive makes
for a great package giving the performance to compliment its styling. There are plans to offer the Silhouette with
a variety of engine options to suit the needs of its customers.
Want
to know more ? register your interest by
contacting the Viper Office via the website or email
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