Flat Water, Big Breeze Ahead: New Zealand Gears Up For Los Angeles Debut

LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES 22 JULY PDT | All ten teams hit the water today for the first full day of practice racing in Los Angeles. But while the championship’s smallest-ever course promises wet, wild and crowded conditions, today’s light breeze showed little evidence of what may be to come.

“It could be carnage,” said New Zealand driver Peter Burling of the Los Angeles racetrack. “It’s going to be incredibly tight. In Chicago, we saw how even one extra boat can cause a lot of teams shifting up and down the leaderboard. This weekend, it will be all about getting out ahead as overtaking will be difficult.”

Burling said conditions, set to build throughout the weekend, should be right in the sweet spot for F50 racing: “We love to push the limits in venues like this - flat water, fairly-reliable breeze. It’s going to make for beautiful racing.”

The Oracle Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix got off to a slow start, with all teams struggling to get up and foiling in today’s training. New Zealand Wing Trimmer Blair Tuke said: “It was really light air today but the team got through it, shook off some of the cobwebs and will be ready to go for tomorrow.”

“Conditions dropped right off when the fog came in, but so long as that doesn’t happen again tomorrow, we should be in for a solid, 15-20 knots breeze - absolutely perfect.”

New Zealand enters the weekend first on the season leaderboard for the first time ever. Burling said: “As a team, we’ve been putting in a whole heap of hard work to ensure we continue to improve. Our approach is always to take a long-term view - we want to be the best team at the end of the season, when it counts.”

This morning’s pre-event press conference also signalled good news for Kiwi Phil Robertson and his Canadian crew, with Robertson announcing: “The team has had a bid accepted. So it’s just finalising all the paperwork and hopefully we’ll have a new ownership group, and can be on our way again. It will be a good place to be, we can get rid of all those unnecessary distractions,” Robertson said.

The Canadians finished third last month in Chicago and Robertson said he felt the crew definitely “has the goods” to make it to the top this season.

The Oracle Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix begins tomorrow at 11am Sunday 23 July NZST, with live racing Sunday and Monday, only on ThreeNow. Fans can catch delayed coverage on Three (linear) at 4.30pm.

© Scoop Media