News

Talked to Nico and he is still in France, waiting for the Disney finals. Where Nico will not participate due to an injury to his elbow that prevented him to finish the Belgium Grand Prix! Nico will go to the Euro Finals in Disney to support the introduction of the new Superjet that will be presented during the Euro finals to the public!

After that Nico will go back to Havasu in order to prepare for the World Finals!

Although winning the qualifying Rius had to retire from the race on Saturday and Sunday with an arm injury! What bad luck with Rius looking so strong for the weekend. Rius has returned to the US in order to recover from his injury. At this moment it is not know if he will be joining the European Tour.

Of course this is devastating news for all the Rius' fans out there and also for the Corona Tour since it looks like the reigning European Champion is out of the Championship! Of course I wish Rius a quick recovery and hope that we will be able to enjoy his great talents soon again on the European Track!

Overall standings of all categories for the European Corona Jetski Championship can be found right here!

Unfortunately due to holidays, the site has not been up to date!! Sorry for that, will work my butt of to make sure that all the resutls are soon on-line! Also due to holidays, work, etc, I have not been able to go to Portugal and Antwerp! Ah well, just hope that I will make it to Euro Disney!

Portugal as ever was a brilliant event, reports from some of the US riders that can be found on PWC.COM will tell you a story that aat least those US Pilots will not quickly forget! Mirandella, located beautifully on the river is one big party and the number of spectators for the actual races are so big that it gives quite an adrenaline kick to the racers, that combined with live television coverage, helicopters in the air, only ads to that!

For Rius the race in Mirandella was kind of a mixed bag, however it seems that he is finding his pace again. And with a overall 2nd the result was good!

It is already a week a go since the Corona EUropean Champioship took place at the wonderful beacht resorts of Zandvoort in the Netherlands. This place is known for it's boulevards, long and wide beaches, lovely quiet weather during the summer months and is attracting tourists from all over the world.... well things were going to be slightly different for the pilots participating in the Corona European Jetski Championship. Already on arrival of the teams, strong winds were terrorizing the boulevards of Zandvoort where the pit lane was organised. Many tents were already victims of these winds during the Thursday night. And as expected all activities were cancelled on the Friday by Yves, just because safety could not be guaranteed.

On the Saturday morning everything looked a lot better, with winds still strong from a westerly direction and thus building up quite a surf, but good enough to start the practice and go racing in the afternoon. Although given the conditions it was decided that the junior/novice/lady classes would not start on this Saturday.

The practice starting at around 11.00 proofed to be quite a spectacle for the bystanders and quite a handfull for the pilots with waves wind and a surf of several hundreds of meters wide! The track was shortened considerable during these first practice rounds.

Then in the afternoon finally racing could begin. The first race Runnabout limited, proofed to be quite a challenge, not only for the riders but also for the officials. The extreme conditions made it almost impossible to keep the score for the officials, and unfortunately the results of this first race (with Dutchman Olav taking second place on his Yamaha GPR!)

After that the limited ski's and then of course the GP-Class raced their race! Excitement was everywhere for the crowd and for the riders, with a spectacular race in the GP Runnabout class where the Yamaha GPR's proofed to have superior hulls for these kind of rough conditions by taking the first 3 places in this race! Teddy Pons won with a tremendous lead! Franky Zapata managed to unlap himself just before the end of the race finishing fourth!

The GP Ski was finishing of the day and the start already showed that the conditions were not favourable for these high powered skies. Nicolas made a slow start, letting all pilots go in front before cutting the complete to the left and after the first buoy he was already in a fifth position.

However after 3 rounds Nicolas' ski showed signs of the same problems as already plagued the team during the Spanish Grand Prix. Electrical problems made Nico's ski stall everytimes and finally the ski stopped completely and Nico was forced to give up!

Also for Chris macClugage the first race of the Dutch Grand Prix was a bad start, since a major crash left him with a badly damaged ski. Fortunatley he could bring his ski back to the beach. The first race was won by Steven Dauliach.

Sunday, weather finally improved, a full day of racing ahead with the beach full of spectators! Max vd Valk

The sunday finally looked as it all supposed to be with beautiful weather and the beaches full with spectators, all classes were racing!

The Young Max vd Valk really amazed both competitors and the crowd by winning his first every European GP round in the Novice Class. The young pilot (16 years), managed to stay ahead of the Kawasaki's by steering his Yamaha Superjet, the only one in the field, expertly through the waves! This is a pilot that we will have to watch in the future! Just received news that Max will be travelling to Portugal and will participate in the three remaining GP's of this years season! GO Max Go

The GP classes had just 1 race on the Sunday, and although leading for the Class win, Teddy didn't manage to maintain his lead. After running at number 1 position for most of the race, a wave submarined his Yamaha GPR giving Zapata the possibility to overtake Teddy. But Teddy was not going to let this happen and immediately set off for a breath taking chase, and after 3 rounds managed to overtake Zapata at the far end of the track. However a huge wave literally catapulted Teddy and his GPR into the ski. By the time Teddy managed to get back up on his GPR, Franky just had to big a lead and he had to settle for not winning this GP!

In the GP Ski things were hot as well with all the top riders back on the starting line. Chris managed to get his ski repaired and was also present. The battle was fierce with all the top riders constantly at the front! Nico had a bad start and after the first lap appeared to be on the 9th position. He managed to fight his way back to the front and eventually finsihed on a 4th place with macCluggage winning Dauliach 2nd (thus winning overall) and Botti 3rd!

All things considered it was a wonderful GP and respect goes out to Yves van Heers and his team who had to deal with the most difficult conditions that I have seen sofar during a European GP.

All in all the championship is still wide open, Portugal will give a more clear picture who will be this seasons favorite for the title! Unfortunately due to holidays I will not be able to travel to Portugal, however I will not miss Antwerp and Euro Disney.

Arrived this morning at 10.00 at Zandvoort to see a wild sea and feel the strong South Western wind on the boulevard of Zandvoort. Already quite some damage to tents of many teams. Apparently last night the tent of Frankie went overboard and this morning the tent of the truck of Rius was found completely destroyed!

Talked to Yves and he confirmed what was to be expected that together with the authorities he had to decide to cancel all activates for the day! The wind a strong force 6 in the morning is expected to grow to a force 7~8 in the afternoon making it just to dangerous to go close course racing!

However hope is not lost since for tomorrow the expectations are way better, and for the Sunday blue skies and weaker wind is expected.

Saturday morning practice starts at 09.00 in the afternoon first Moto all classes

So this means back to an old style program! Yves confirmed that even if some races are cancelled due to sea and wind conditions on the Saturday, there is enough time on the Sunday to make up for the lost time! It will mean however full days for the pilots and their crews. Spoke to many Americans out there and all were disappointed, and amazed by the conditions.

Also the start procedure will be changed, there will be no start using elastic rope due to the fact that pilots have to start in the surf. The start will be by using the whistle to start the engines and raising the flag as the final go! This will also be quite difficult especially for the Runnabouts to keep everybody on the line!

Today is the start of the 2nd round of the Corona European Jetski Championship, and the venue for the event is the beautiful beach of Zandvoort! The Friday will begin with practice and time trails, followed by qualifications and the first moto on the Saturday and finaly Moto 2 & 3 on the Sunday.

Zanvoort promises to be quite a spectacular event, not only because the riders will be racing on see, whit all the difficult conditions that brings, but also since the field is really packed with talented pilots, all wanting to take the win of the Dutch Grand prix home.

On top of that the weather forecast for especially today is not all that brilliant. Wind and rain is what the riders can expect on this first day, with wind going up to 85 km/h even so the surf will be rough! For the Saturday and Sunday things will ease down quite a bit, with actually quite nice weather expected on the Sunday!

Jet Sport News # 19 / 07
Spanish G.P.
Great!!!

FIRST ROUND OF THE CORONA EXTRA EUROPEAN JET SKI CHAMPIONSHIP: BOTTI AND ZAPATA ALREADY AT THE TOP!

Almost 160 riders gathered in San Javier, a nice little town located on the south-eastern Spanish coast, for the first round of the European Jet Ski Championship 2007 which took place on the second weekend of May. Even if the sun shone for the three days of race, there was a strong wind, which made this challenging track rougher despite being sheltered in a bay. As usual, a huge crowd attended the event and the pilots have offered a great show especially in both GP categories in which the starting grids were full. French pilots Jean-Baptiste BOTTI in the stand-up category and Franky ZAPATA in the R/A category made easy work of the track and leave Spain with a comfortable lead in both Ski GP and Runabout GP general rankings.

Ski Novice
This new category, which in the future may replace the Ski Stock class, but only open to two stroke watercraft is designed for the pilots with minimal race experience. At the opening round Spaniard Jaime RUIS was victorious in all three legs. His fellow countryman Federico FUSTER LOPEZ finishes second in front of the Englishman Paul WEBSTER. Only Kawasaki SXR machines were at the start.

Ski Stock
In this category three Hydrospaces monopolised the top of the rankings. Kevin Reiterer, the team manager’s son of the Austrian manufacturer, took highest step of the podium winning two out of three motos. However, the competition was fierce with the Frenchman Morgan PORET, winner of the second moto and leader of the third before making a mistake on the final lap and losing the lead and overall win to REITERER. His fellow countryman Edouard MENGUY finished third and shows that he will be a very active animator of the championship this year. Back in the European Championship, the Spaniard Kawasaki rider David SELLES places the first atmospheric two-stroke machine on the fourth position.

Runabout Limited
The battle was intense between both Laure HUMMEL and Fabio INCORVAIA’s Sea Doo. Finally, the duel turned to the advantage of the Italian who won two legs out of three. Unfortunately, the Spanish race may be the last confrontation between these two title pretenders as the Frenchwoman was disqualified by tech and where she announced she would stop competing in the European Championship. As a consequence of Hummel’s disqualification, the Italian Raffaele BENINI, also riding a Sea Doo, took the second place in front of the astonishing Spanish rider Amador FERRER at the handlebars of a GP 1300 Yamaha.

Ski Limited
As in the Ski Stock category, it was another 100% Hydrospace podium for the Ski Limited category.
The first moto was dominated by the Italian Mirco MAZZA, however, the Frenchman and reigning champion of this class Brice LOPEZ showed that he was the boss right from the beginning of the second moto. The finals were very disputed. LOPEZ had to wait until the half of the race to overtake MAZZA who was very strong in Spain. In third, the young Valentin DARDILLAT, vice Junior World Champion in the Limited category, was the only other able to follow the pace imposed by the strongest men of the weekend. As a consequence, he takes the third place. Behind the trio, the Kawasaki pilots offered a real fight. The veteran Jim GOODCHILD did better than the others once again. The Englishman takes the fourth place in front of Jérémy PORET and the astonishing Lou EMPATZ, the 2006 Stock France Champion who made his first steps in Limited category as well as in the European Championship.

Runabout Stock
James BUSHELL is once again beyond reproach in San Javier. It has been two seasons since the Englishman is untouchable at the handlebars of his four-stroke RXP Sea Doo. Even if Benny GRIETEN, winner of the first moto got equipped with the same machine, the Belgian rider remains helpless facing the superiority of BUSHELL and finishes behind the latter. But in this category of the basic Jet Bikes, the surprise came from Angello BERTOZZI and his Ultra 250 Kawasaki. The talent of the pilot is well known but nobody thought that this three-seater machine could be in a position to struggle with the two-seater Sea Doo’s. But his two second places finishes and his final third place prove the contrary. With more experience on the machine, he could be able to fight the devilish BUSHELL.

Ski Ladies Limited
In the Ladies category, the significant fact of this first round of the European Championship was the presence of the Japanese Yuki Kurhasari who has been integrated into the Jet Shed team to compete for the whole season on the old continent. Admittedly, she has not really been brilliant finishing only seventh facing our fearsome european riders but she kept on smiling on the finish line and was rather confident. Another pilot had a wide smile on the podium was indeed, the Frenchwoman Julie BULTEAU who won for the first time on the Corona Extra European Jet Ski Championship with her Hydrospace in front of her fellow countrywoman Audrey DUJARDIN riding a Kawasaki and unbeaten for a long time. For her third season at the highest level of the competition, this is an exploit for the young girl from the northern French town of Lille. The Englishwoman Anya COLLEY who won the first moto and takes the third place behind the Frenchwomen. The “Pink Lady” and her Hydrospace has made a lot of progress over the winter and her role in this championship will be more than important as it is the case for the very young Portuguese rider Stefania BLAZER riding the same machine. For sure, this Ski Ladies category looks promising.

Ski Vétéran Limited
As it was the case last year, Jim GOODCHILD has undisputedly flown over the track. The Englishman places his Kawasaki on the highest step of the podium. He is followed by the Austrian Markus ERLACH and the Spaniard David SELLES, particularly on form for the beginning of the season. When you ask GOODCHILD, in his early forties, to reveal his secret to be on a such a good form, he answers:”Lisa”. Meaning Lisa BARSBY, his partner in life who also competed in the Veteran category and finished sixth among the boys and among girls too.

Ski Junior Stock
Once again, in this category for riders under sixteen, the Hydrospace have outclassed the other watercraft in the competition. Winning the first two motos, Charles MENGUY made a perfect start but a problem with a sensor in the final moto dropped him to last. He finally finished second. The winner of this Spanish weekend is the Croatian Branko BANOVIC who has not been the fastest but the steadiest during this wonderful Junior race. The Belgian Quinten BOSSCHE is on the third step of the podium thanks to his parents who give him the means to be brilliant.

Runabout GP
With 19 machines on the starting line in this category of GP R/A, Yves VAN HEERS and Franco DETORI had the right to be joyful in San Javier. Introduced last year, the idea of GP machines is to give greater possibilities to the engineering of hulls and motors. The one thing that casts a shadow was to know if thanks to technical evolutions the best riders of the European Championship would reach the level of the twice European Champion Franky ZAPATA. The answer still remains negative but some riders did manage to get closer and the gap is less noticeable than before. Of course, the Frenchman won this first round but it has been more complicated than it seemed to be after the individual timed leg on a track, which let the first opponent 6 seconds behind. Indeed, even if he has won the first and the third legs, the Frenchman has faced engine problems with his Sea Doo during the second round and finished only third. So James BUSHELL has taken advantage from the situation to win his first leg since Mirandella 2005. The Englishman, second in Spain at the handlebars of an over-vitaminated GTI Sea Doo, will certainly be the ZAPATA’s most dangerous opponent as well as Teddy PONS with his two-stroke Yamaha which has made considerable progress. The Frenchman, back after a broken elbow and who is not in the best form, finishes third after a harsh struggle with BUSHELL. Behind, boys like Angello BERTOZZI, Benny GRIETEN and Alexandre LOUVET on Sea Doo or Jerry JORISSEN and Emmanuel CANTAMESSA on Yamaha have shown a real potential and are likely to join the battle.

Ski GP
Right from the timed practices, we already had an idea of how the championship would take place: the season will be explosive. Beginning the session, Nicolas RIUS made a reference time on his Yamaha which was thought to be unbeatable. Moreover, Steven DAULIACH and Renaud URBAIN at the handlebars of performing Kawasaki jets had mechanical problems preventing them from finishing their run. Finally, only the thirteenth rider succeeded in beating Nicolas RIUS, running 0.20 seconds faster. Who was this rider? Jean-Baptiste BOTTI. The little Frenchman would not only be content with posting the fastest time but also and winning the three legs of closed race. Only Nicolas RIUS succeeded such an exploit in 2005. of course, the rider has worked hard last winter and his Kawasaki is really performing now but “JB” owes his victory to his consistency above all, facing opponents who have suffered many problems. Nicolas RIUS could not follow the pace because of electrical problems with his Yamaha.
Alberto MONTI, third in practice, finished only sixth of the two first legs before breaking down in finals. Renaud URBAIN, after a great first leg during which he succeeded to catch the second place got hit in the second. Suffering from an enormous bruise, the Belgian was not at the start of the final leg. Ludovic CAUMONT was successful in the third leg only. Nico LESSELBERGER is not fast enough for the category at the moment. The only ones who did well and who succeeded to limit the damages facing Jean-Baptiste “The Storm” BOTTI are Steven DAULIACH on Kawasaki and Brice LOPEZ on Hydrospace, respectively second and third at the handlebars of Limited without forgetting the brave Michaël PORET who has been able to place his Kawasaki at the fourth rank in spite of a broken shoulder plate which is not mended yet. Some pilots have already lost precious points but with the return to the rule which does not take into account the three worst results of the season, everything remain possible for each of the animators of this Ski GP category. Full of promise!

Freestyle
In the freestylers’ competition, the 2006 Expert World Champion, the Englishman Anthony BURGESS, easily won facing Tom DE POOTER and ICEMAN.
The next meeting of the Corona Extra Jet Ski European Championship will be held in Netherlands on July 6th, 7th and 8th. By then, many riders will have improved their physical condition or their machines. The huge crowd expected in the northern sea resort considered as the Dutch Saint Tropez will not be disappointed by the show offered by the riders.

Spanish Grand Prix: Great job!!
The Spanish G.P. was a great event with record numbers of riders and a top class local organisation. The World’s jetski press were present for these wonderful races and witness to great winners!

The only “black point” to the weekend is the verbal and physical abuse shown towards the Officials by some riders and team members!
We will not accept this type of behaviour anymore - Respect is the basic rule of racing!

Franco Dettori will take the microphone during the Riders Briefing at the Dutch G.P. to explain to you what kind of sanctions will be imposed to avoid this type of situation occurring again. I am too good and always forgive, but some riders and team members go too far, and this is not fair! It has to stop!

I wish to thank all the persons concerned about my health, a small heart attack brings me to the hospital just before the award ceremony, but I recovered very well and leave the hospital the same day (They don’t allow me to smoke in the intensive care)
Just that you know: I will not die, as long there is one jet on water somewhere on heart!

Changes in the “Super Pôle” system for the G.P. Classes:
Due to the success of the G.P. classes we need to change the system of the “ Super Pôle”
We cannot send each rider individually on the water for a lap against the clock any more, in Spain we finish at 9pm, too late!
Therefore, we will change the system from the Dutch G.P:
We will keep the top 10 riders from the second practice session (easy to do with the transponders) the top 10 best lap time from the second practice session will be selected for two individual laps against the clock, we will keep the best time out of the two laps, the top 5 will receive the points according the system 10-7-5-3-1 points.
Also we will use only a part of the course to do the individual time trial.

Yves Van Heers

*** Yves van Heers, the master of the European Jetski Championship rushed off to the hospital! ***

From the IJSBA website:

Yves Van Heers Update

May 8 , 2007
This evening, I spoke With Yves Van Heers, coordinator of EJSBA Euro Tour, the world’s premiere multi-nation tour sanctioned by the IJSBA. Yves had a small cardiac episode during the opening round of the Euro Tour at Gandia, Spain. When I spoke to Yves, he was resting at his home in Belgium. I am pleased to say that Yves is recuperating well, is in good spirits, and is expected to recover.
Those close to Yves will know some of the ways to gauge his condition. We spoke about his health only long enough for him to convey that he was on the road to recovery. The conversation quickly shifted to the tremendous success of the opening round of the Euro Tour, the improved status of racing, the increase in racer happiness, and the good things to come with the Euro tour and the 2007 World Finals. His outlook was good and attitude was positive. He even took a few moments to be crotchety regarding some troublesome characters that had irritated him during the otherwise great opening event. This, to me, is a sure sign that Yves is well and will be up and functioning to capacity in no time.

This years Spanish GP was quite the interesting GP with a complete field of the world's top riders! It seams that PWC racing has completely moved to Europe!! Already during the first qualifying it became clear that Nicolas Rius and Botti are the riders to watch in the GP ski class. With a Super pole qualification difference of only 10 seconds it is clear that they are both fast!

However during this Spanish Grandprix we could not yet see the full potential of both riders since the wind played an important part as well as technical problems for Nicolas. At the first Moto, Nicolas stunned the crowd by taking the hole shot and leading the complete field after the start! Unfortunately the conditions made him crash on the straight just before the first turn. After getting back on to his ski he was already in third place and it seemed that this moto was lost.

The second and the third moto's were even more disastrous. Every time after the start Nico was again leading the field however in the 2nd and in the 3rd moto electrical problems made his ski cutting out on the most terrible sections of the track, like just after the log jumps, etc. In the end there was nothing Nico could do then to call it a day and concentrate on the next GP in Holland!

1st - #85 - botti - france - jfc/kawasaki
2nd - #217 - rius - france - rius/yamaha
3rd - #301 - monti - italy -
4th - #77 - poret - france - jfc-kawasaki
5th - #69 - caumont - france -
6th - #90 - reiterer - austria - factory hydrospace
7th - #1 - lopez - france -
8th - #101 - erlach - ? -
9th - #51 - goodchild - uk -
10th - #8 - dardillat - france -
11th - #187 - del pardo - usa - west coast stereo/macc racing
12th - #47 - de vecchi - france -
13th - #23 - gill - uk -
14th - #67 - richard - sweeden -
15th - #7 - lasselsberger - austria - factory hydrospace
dnf - #52 - urbain - belgium - jsu.be
dnf - #100 - dauliach - france - tbm/kawasaki
dnr - #1 - dujardin - france -
dnr - #11 - kaldvee - estonia -
dnr - #17 - pons - france -

With thanks to Del Pardo, the only American racing in the kings klasse in the European championship at the moment!!

According to him, Botti and Rius are apart only a tenth of a second, so that is going to be an interesting race this afternoon!!

Hot from Lake Havasu, home of Nicolas, Christophe (his mechanic) and Karine (wife of Christophe and the one that keeps Rius Racing on it's feet!) the first pictures of the race skis that Nicolas will drive already this coming weekend during the first round of the European Championship in Spain!!

Come back and find out the results of the first round of the Corona European JetSki Championship!

Of course we wish Nicolas and the whole team all the success for the first round!

*** Changes in "CORONA EUROPEAN JET SKI CHAMPIONSHIP 2007" ***
By Thierry Scharff

This 2007 season, 19th year of existence of the European Jet Ski Championship, will be marked by a major change in the organization. Indeed, Yves VAN HEERS will be from now on backed up in his task of ceremony master by Franco DETORI who was appointed chairman of the EJSBA last winter (the European Jet Ski Federation).
The native of Luxembourg, motor engineer of the Rotax factory and inevitable figure in the Jet Ski world since 10 years, has accepted this function with the will of bringing major improvements using his legendary diplomacy to gather and to forge ahead with all the actors of the discipline. Moreover, the British Bob Crabtree, famous for his after-race controls has been appointed Technical Director. The three men have determined together a series of many technical and sports evolutions described in the following lines.
The first step taken is the adoption of an electronic timing system for both Ski and Runabout GP categories.
Still in these categories in which engineering is almost unlimited to allow the machines with two-stroke engines to compete with the compressed four-stroke engines, the maximum displacement has passed from 800 to 900 cc in the Ski category, and from 1.400 to 1.600 cc in the Runabout Category.
On the contrary, to make a return to basics in the Stock categories, the mass-production jets, Franco, Yves and Bob have decided to reintroduce a category of original machines developing 80 HP at the maximum. This is the best way to emphasize on the pilots qualities rather than on the performance of their machines. It will also allow a cut in costs by stopping the arms race and to put an end to the technical irregularities.
The last major step decided during the season break is the return to a classification based on the 12 best results of the pilots of each category whereas the 5 weekends of race will be made up of 15 results. Clearly, this means that the final general classifications will not take into account the 3 worst results of each pilot.
As far as the race spots are concerned, many novelties are in prospect. For the third year in a row , the small Spanish seaside town of San Javier located on the southern Mediterranean coast will welcome the opening round of the 2007 Championship on May 4th, 5th and 6th. The second round will be marked by a return in Netherlands, a country in which the European Championship has not stopped for about ten years. To be more specific, the race will take place in Zandvoort, a city located 50 km far from Amsterdam famous for its automobile race track. Located on the coast of the North sea, Zandvoort is considered as the Dutch equivalent for Saint-Tropez. Given the dates of the event (July 6th, 7th and 8th), a huge number of spectators is expected on the sea-wall to attend the debates and the pilots will have no difficulties to have fun between the races.
The whole caravan of the Corona Extra European Jet Ski Championship 2007 will meet up for the third stage in Mirandela, Portugal, on July 21st, 22nd and 23rd to compete in an event which enjoys the best organization and which is used to being considered as the most friendly.
For the fourth leg of the season and after a year of absence, the competitors of the European Championship will meet in Belgium on August 24th, 25th, 26th.
Precisely, the event will take place in the historical harbour of Antwerp, the heart of the city, on the Escaut river. As usual in Flanders, as it used to be the case in Dînant, a festive atmosphere will prevail thanks to the lot of bars and restaurants located on the embankment.
Then, on September 14th, 15th and 16th, the Paris Disney Village lake will be once again the inescapable place of the European Jet scene on the occasion of the final round of the Corona Extra European Jet Ski European Championship. The best pilots of each category will compete on this lake which is known as the most technical one of the World. Luckily, pressure will go down after the races thanks to the magic and the attractions proposed on the Parisian site. Moreover, the stars of the European Championship will be able to share these moments with the numerous faithful French jet ski fanatics who would not miss this event for nothing on earth.
As far as the forces involved are concerned, this new European campaign is expected to be exciting. On the one hand, all the animators of the amateur categories have already confirmed their entries and on the other hand, according to the requests about the allocation of the race numbers, both GP categories should be full.
In Ski GP, Nicolas RIUS, holder of the European Championship title has worked flat out last winter to get his YAMAHA Super Jet ready. In the KAWASAKI Team France, Jean Baptiste BOTTI is now the leader of the team and will be backed by Michaël PORET. Both pilots will benefit from the latest evolutions brought to the SXR with, first of all, the introduction of a double exhaust system. In Belgium, the URBAIN family has taken advantage from the limits allowed by the regulation transplanting a Rotax engine in the SXR hull. According to Yves VAN HEERS who has seen the machine and the pilot Renaud URBAIN in action during the first round of the Belgium Championship, the result is very impressive. Backed by the knowledge of the current holder of the World Championship title, the Frenchman Brice LOPEZ, HYDROSPACE should not be outdone given that many others top pilots have also chosen the Austrian machine. As a consequence, the stand up category, with performing machines, will offer many action. However, in the Runabout category, we should witness the biggest evolution as far as the huge number of pilots of the entry list is concerned.
The performance of the 2006 machines have been emulated and many pilots may have engineered genuine war machines. Of course, the Frenchman Franky ZAPATA will be very keen to keep the European championship title for a third year in a row. But this time, he will ride a SEA DOO and is likely to have a hard time with the other competitors. The British James BUSHELL , the only one who was able to compete with ZAPATA last year will be even more prepared and above all, he will not remain as the only one to ride RXP’s with modified hulls.
We already know that the Frenchmen Alexandre LOUVET and Sébastien TOUYERAS have made a leap forward and buying SEA DOO factory jets. Teddy PONS has also modified the hull of his YAMAHA and, as usual, we will have to rely on him to mount the final podium. Still according to Yves VAN HEERS, many non-European pilots from the Emirates, Russia and above all from the United States have confirmed their entries as well as a certain Chris MAC CLUGAGE who promised on October 2006, during the World Championship, to come and give ZAPATA a kick up the backside.
It’s a matter worth watching near San Javier, Spain, on the first weekend of May.

The dates have been fixed for the 2007 Corona European Jetski Championship and two brand new exciting venues have been added to the Tour! The Tour will now start again in Portugal, but then go to Holland for the second round at the beautiful seaside Zandvoort. Being in the middle of the summer it is for sure that huge number of people will come to this event! The second new venue is Antwerp! The Capital of race minded Belgium!

Go quickly to the Race Calender section for the actula dates and find out when Rius will be racing in order to defend his 2006 Championship!

For the 16th time in his long and illustrious career, Nicolas "The Fighter" Rius is the European Grand Prix Champion!! Nicolas dominated the Ski GP (Pro Ski) class for the entire 2006 season to prove once again that he is the premier force to reckon with in professional personal watercraft racing today!

At the last stop on the 2006 European Tour, the Paris France Grand Prix, Rius was victorious in all 3 motos and qualifying competition! Thus -Nico finished the 2006 European season as he began his career - a winner! Following his First Place finish at World Finals in Lake Havasu, ARZ in 2005 - Nicolas Rius remains on top of the sport of PWC racing!

Tera Laho did a very impressive job competing against the men to finish 7th overall in the Paris France competition!

France Grand Prix Overall:
1st - Nicolas Rius, Yamaha
2nd - Steven Dauliach, Kawasaki
3rd - Micheal Poret
7th - Tera Laho, Yamaha


Day Datum	maandag 2-07	dinsdag 3-07	woensdag 4-07	donderdag 5-07	Friday 6-07	Saturday 7-07	Sunday 8-07
Min	15 °C	15 °C	13 °C	15 °C	15 °C	12 °C	13 °C
Max	19 °C	17 °C	17 °C	17 °C	18 °C	21 °C	24 °C
Sun	20%	10%	15%	20%	30%	50%	55%
Rain	90%	85%	85%	65%	60%	30%	20%
direction Force	ZW 4	Z 4	W 5	W 5	SW 6	W 3	ZO 3