Last week proved to be a statement event for the US defender of the America’s Cup
as Oracle Team USA was prominent in all areas of the AC World Series event. Jimmy Spithill’s team claimed the overall 2011-12 season title with a strong second place finishes in both the match racing and fleet racing in Newport. Spithill also claimed the overall season Fleet Racing Championship while Sweden’s Artemis Racing won the inaugural season’s Match Racing Championship.
His veteran stable-mate very nearly stole the day in front of a capacity
crowd of spectators at Fort Adams. Russell Coutts won the Newport Match
Racing Championship over Spithill and almost took out the fleet race as
well, but was denied that honor by Chris Draper’s Luna Rossa Piranha team,
who took advantage of a penalty to the Coutts team to grab a lead they
would extend to the finish, to grab the Newport Fleet Racing Championship.
Coutts was under intense pressure in the latter stages of the race from the
Italian Swordfish team, but just held on for second place.
The Newport event marks the end of the first season of AC World Series
racing and follows previous events in Cascais (POR), Plymouth (UK), San
Diego (USA), Naples and Venice (ITA). Racing will start anew next month
with the 2012-13 AC World Series in San Francisco from August 21-26. The
new Ben Ainslie Racing will join the circuit as it comes to the host city
of the 34th America’s Cup.
Courtesy of www.americascup.com
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