Reigning South African Formula 1 powerboat champion Keagan Frankiewicz came, saw and conquered at the opening round of the new powerboat racing season held on the Vaal River at the magnificent “The View on Vaal Resort” at Abrahamsrust.
In a new racing format the drivers took part in a 20 lap sprint race on Saturday followed by the traditional three by 15 lap heats on Sunday where Frankiewicz dominated from the moment racing got under way.
In the Saturday sprint race he lapped everyone up to third place with Wynand de Jager and Morne Herholdt rounding out the podium.
Sunday's racing action saw Frankiewicz taking three out of three wins from Michael Wessels in second with Wynand de Jager in third.
A much-improved performance from Michael Wessels in his Caudwell Marine Hull, which was built locally by Hi-Tech Automotive on the outskirts of Gqbergha, saw him running a lot closer to the lead boat as the weekend progressed with De Jager also improving his lap times during each heat.
Due to the problem of spare parts for the Mercury 2-litre motor becoming increasingly difficult to source internationally, five of the current drivers have already made the switch to running the 2.5-litre engine as used in the H2O World F1 Championship.
It was a weekend to forget for Morne Herholdt, who unfortunately damaged his 2.5-litre motor in practice on Friday and had to resort to running a 2-litre motor in its place and Bruce Repsold was plagued by an intermittent electrical gremlin that hampered his performance throughout the weekend.
Overall combined results:
1st Keagan Frankiewicz; 2nd Wynand de Jager; 3rd Michael Wessels; 4th Morne Herholdt; 5th John-Ross Duncan; 6th Nico Wessels; 7th Dylan Moolman; 8th Bruce Repsold.
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