My experience at the 2004 World Cup Finals
2004 Dec 03, by Paul del Rosario
A bad call given to me in the final mod for not keeping my line made me restart with a dead engine with my key up in the air and one holder, hence leaving me in the last spot (16th place) in the first lap working my way up one by one finishing the race 4th overall and a couple of feet to the 3rd placer. Finishing 1st in qualifying and another first during heat 1 and a 4th in heat 2 left me with 2nd overall in the expert 1200 superstock. The 2nd place finish was soon taken back by the IJSBA, because we were disqualified for having a hull that the technical inspectors found irregular. The tech inspectors did not have any form of specific measurements of thickness to clarify the boats irregularity and they failed to recognize the same boat was used in the 2002 world finals. This even despite the 2002 race approved serial numbers still intact, and the same boat was used in 2 rounds of the 2003 ocean side U.S. National Tour. The boat also passed the minimum weight requirement by more than a hundred pounds. The decision until today is still unresolved.
The course in the 2004 world finals was one of the most technical courses I have ever raced in. It features a drag race lighting system used in Europe for the starts, several additional turns in the right hand section such as sweepers, and a horse shoe turn after the front straight away which also has a sudden left turn as well. The split option too was given 7 turns instead of the traditional 5. Two sweeper turns which had large divider buoys were placed too far right after the exits of the split option. The numerous turns gave me opportunities to pass racers during heat two, the IJSBA created this course, being inspired by the race courses used in the European race circuit, instead of the traditional high speed, flat out courses.
Despite our bad luck in the world finals, I am still determined to win in this coming 2004 Thailand King's Cup this December 11-12, 2004.
My plans for 2005 would be to help Dong restore jetski racing here in the Philippines and off shore racing as well. If we still have funds, I would like to return and win in the world finals and wave our pinoy flag =)
Even though we didnt have races this year, racers still practiced with me, racers like BJ Ang, "Smokin" Carlo Garcia, and Peter Cruz. Dong Arcilla and Willy Ang also set up sessions for me to ride in their beach. So thank you so much to all of you, and my crew yanick elnar, mark dobson, dave harvey, and my father Bobby del rosario
My sponsors include Petron Gas Corporation, Manila Cordage, Stoked Inc., and of course Networx Jetsports.
Once again thanks to my bro's at Networx Jetsports. Make sure to check out Networx if you are in the Philippines, they will hook you up. =)
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