Blastoff Racing are delighted to introduce TOIO as our team clothing partner for the 2018 Marathon Powerboat Racing Season.
We are very excited about working with this stylish Italian company.
The TOIO range is available with or without Blastoffracing.com team branding from the web site toio-cowes.co.uk and also from their shop at The Corner House, Shooters Hill, COWES, Isle of Wight, PO31 7BG.
Blastoff Racing featured in last Friday’s episode of Amazon’s Grand Tour and was hailed as the ‘best yet’ by fans after seeing Jeremy Clarkson break a record at Coniston reports The North West Evening Mail.
The episode was the latest in the show’s second season on Amazon Prime.
Alison Whalley, chairman of Coniston Powerboat Records Week, praised the show for highlighting the ‘beauty’ of the area.
She said:
We welcomed The Grand Tour to Coniston last November, and the programme showing Jeremy Clarkson achieving a national record in the Amphibious Experimental Unlimited class was released last week.
Mr Clarkson was one of 49 competitors attempting records at the 2017 event and we were pleased that he was one of the 25 successful attempts.
Viewers took to Twitter after the show was released, with Jamie Green saying:
Best episode of @thegrandtour yet! Nice to see coniston as well.
Another user, D T Dean, said:
This is Grand Tour back to its best, as in when it was called Top Gear. Don’t change it now.
Each year, thousands descend on Coniston to pay homage to some of the heroes of speed racing.
Last year’s effort was hailed as a tremendous success, with increased number of entries and spectators throughout the week.
There were 49 entries, 182 runs and 25 records broken on the measured Kilometre in the 47th Records Week.
Dorian Griffith, and Shelley Jory-Leigh received their RYA Marathon C Class Championship Bronze Medal last Saturday evening at the RYA Powerboat Racing Awards.
It was a night of glitz, glamour and awards as racers from offshore, circuit and jet bike, were joined by friends, family, sponsors and supporters to celebrate the successes of the 2017 season.
Over 50 awards were presented throughout the evening by Edd China from Channel 4’s Wheeler Dealer TV show.
The Industry Award was awarded to Blastoff Racing’s engineering partner, EP Barrus Ltd.
Photo: Chris Davies
Shelley Jory-Leigh was awarded ‘the fastest lady of the week’ for the second year in a row for driving Blastoff at 80.24 mph at Coniston.
The Shepherds Trophy was awarded to Shelley by the Windermere Motor Boat Racing Club (WMBRC) Commodore, Roy Pugh.
Photo courtesy: Records Week
Dorian and Shelley today upped their UIM Marathon Class C World record to 88.47 mph on Coniston Water.
Dorian said;
We got the absolute best out of the set up we had.
With slightly bigger props, I’m sure we could have broken the magic 90 mph barrier.
Photo: Tim Tapping
Dorian Griffith’s Blastoff Racing team have taken UIM World and British Marathon Class C records at Coniston Water today.
We are fairly pleased with our 85.90 mph record runs, I’m confident with further tweeks from our engineers Trevor Leigh and Will Stevens we can hit the 90 mph mark by the end of the week.
Co-Driver Shelley Jory-Leigh said after breaking the records;
It’s the ‘Cherry on the Cake’ for an amazing Blastoff Racing season.
Since my huge racing accident six years ago, I haven’t been sure that I could compete at the highest level again, this season has not only helped to regain my confidence, it has reignited my passion for Offshore Powerboat Racing.
Photo: Tim Tapping
Blastoff powers into Torquay second overall – Photo Tim Tapping
Dorian Griffith, Shelley Jory-Leigh and Will Stevens entered the Cowes Classic 2016 with a dream, to finish the World’s Toughest Offshore Powerboat Race.
By the end of Sunday the 4th of September, their dream had been exceeded with a fairytale.
With a full and successful testing programme behind them, the team lined up against 13 other UIM Marathon boats ready to tackle 190 nm of racing.
The distance alone was a challenge and with force 7 winds stirring up 13-19 foot seas the task seemed almost impossible.
By Portland, Blastoff’s opponents were dropping like flies.
Italian entrant Tommy Racing (Maurizio Schepici and Gabriele Giambattista) and Hendricks 55 (Miles Jennings, Markus and Vincent Hendricks) were the first to retire.
Reigning Cowes-Torquay-Cowes Champion Vector Martini Rosso, a Vector hull piloted by Peter Dredge, Simon Powell, Malcolm Crease and Jason McVicar, succumbed to technical issues after enjoying an early lead.
Technical issues forced Silverline, (Drew Langdon and Giancarlo Cangiano) out of the running as well. To make matters worse, their stricken boat was then swamped and sank. Thankfully, no one was injured. The crew was rescued and the boat was towed to safety.
UIM Marathon Class C competition – Photo: Chris Davies
SUNUS Ocean Racing, Blastoff’s Class C competitor succumbed to a steering malfunction, the crew Tom Montgomery-Swan and Michal Galczewski from Poland, were bitterly disappointed. They had a belief that their petrol Mercury 4-Stroke engines were superior to the twin diesel Yanmar units installed in the Fountain hull.
Incredibly, the team was now second overall heading to Torquay.
Only eight-time UIM Class 1 World Champion Steve Curtis, with team mates Richard Carr and Paul Sinclair were ahead of them in Cougar 46.
Blastoff raced into Torquay, completing the first half of the race at an average speed of 41.41 mph.
They were 47 minutes behind the Mercury Racing powered Cougar with Biretta Due, a Belgium Buzzi RIB piloted by Jean-Pierre Neels, Thomas Vandamme, Marijke D’Hondt and Dmitry Schiller finishing 33 minutes behind Blastoff for a third overall finish.
Thunderstreak, a 53 year old hull piloted by Robin Ward and Jeff Hall finished fourth but failed to complete the course within the stated 3 hour 51 minute time limit.
First in Marathon Class C and Second Overall at Torquay – Photo: Tim Tapping
The depleted fleet meant just 4 boats would start the Torquay Cowes race and then almost immediately after the start Biretta Due experienced oil pressure loss which left just Cougar 46 and Blastoff Racing in with a shout of winning the Beaverbrook Trophy.
The longer and higher powered Cougar 46′ held the lead to Cowes to take the overall win.
32 minutes after, Blastoff Racing crossed the line in second place overall with an average speed of just 37.43 mph, showing just how bad the conditions were.
They’ve done it! Photo: Chris Davies
The team were ecstatic, they had finished on the podium after racing in one of the roughest Cowes Torquay Cowes races ever held.
Not only that, Shelley became the highest placed British lady competitor in the history of the race, only Betty Cook from America went one better in 1980.
Royal Yacht Squadron – Photo: Chris Davies
Press & Media
BOOTE-Magazin
Motorboat & Yachting
Shelley Jory-Leigh guested as Co-Driver
Blastoff established a Marathon Class C record at 83.49 mph on Lake Coniston.
The attending St. John Ambulance crew selected that the Concours D’elegance trophy was awarded to the team.
Cowes Clasic 2015 – Blastoff racing into Torquay – Photos: Mike Powell
We are adding more photographs of Blastoff during the Cowes Classic weekend to the gallery >> Link
We have great pleasure in announcing that Puffa have agreed to be our clothing Partner & Sponsor for the 2015 Campaign.
We are all delighted by this news and look forward to the racing days ahead with the Blastoff Puffa Racing Team.
Puffa
Puffa has an interesting history starting in the 1970’s, founder Penny Rogers was inspired by the quilted jackets she had seen whilst travelling through Canada and the US. Her inspiration saw the creation of Puffa and she designed a small collection of jackets made initially from eiderdown quilts.
The Puffa brand is quintessentially English and during the 70’s and 80’s Puffa became the must have jacket for the people in the know. It has been well received by the British sporting excellence and members of the Royal Family for over 30 years, not just because of its functionality, warmth and durability, but also because it was the fashion item for town and country.