(Palma Mallorca, Spain)- By
winning 6 of 11 races, QUANTUM RACING simply smoked their hot
competition in the TP52 class recently while racing for the regatta win
and the overall 52 Super Series championship win off Palma Mallorca,
Spain. The American team, which is skippered by Ed Baird and has Terry Hutchinson as tactician,
enjoyed the sparkling sea breeze which topped 20 kts at times during
the last race to deliver the final race victory, running out their third
successive 52 SUPER SERIES regatta win after triumphs in Barcelona and
Ibiza.Competitor Nikolas Zennström paid them the ultimate compliment, admitting the QUANTUM RACING crew were pretty much unstoppable, “At the end of this regatta we are pretty happy with second. We wanted to win regatta, we gave it a shot and we are sailing the boat well but Quantum Racing are just sailing better.”
For the Quantum Racing team, formed in 2008, it is the first time they have won Spain’s biggest and most prestigious regatta. And, it took TWO J/24 World Champions (Ed & Terry), not just one, to pull off a formidable tour'de'force on the race course. Surprised? Perhaps not, that's what tough J/One-Design competition teaches many of the world's best sailors participating in premiere regattas around the world. It will be interesting to see if another J/24 World Champion, John Kostecki (the tactician on Oracle's AC72 for skipper Jimmie Spithill) can pull off what many consider the improbable task of beating the Flying Kiwi's on-board Emirates Team New Zealand AC72 in the America's Cup 34 Finale. Time will tell if all that one-design experience will come into play!
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