A ruptured fuel tankforced them to retire with just 1.5 miles remaining of an epic encounter that had provided over four hours of action, with Wettpunkt.com and Cinzano battling for the win. “That’s racing,” Bohinc philosophically explained afterwards. “It was really tough but we did everything we could to win in these difficult conditions. It was a fantastic team performance and we are naturally disappointment after coming so close.”Bohinc hoped he could soon put that disappointment firmly behind him as Sicily and the final two rounds of the season for the OSG Racing team fast approached.

There were but three teams left in the hunt for the ultimate accolade in the Powerboat P1 Evolution class. Leaders Silverline, second placed OSG Racing and Cigarette Smash Poker, lying in third. All of them suffered setbacks in their preparations for Sicily as a hair line crack to the hull of the SNAV OSG Outerlimits powerboat was discovered, while their two competitors has to contend with blown engines during the mornings practise. It would be the SNAV OSG that came out on top in round nine, the sprint race, and in emphatic style. With Cigarette Smash Poker coming second and Silverline sixth, the standings going into the final race of the 2009 championship saw OSG Racing 35 points behind Silverline with Cigarette Smash Poker in third, 39 points behind OSG.

However, of the top three in the Evolution class, only SNAV OSG would qualify for 50 engine reliability bonus points if they were to complete the following days’ course and, if they were to do so, they would move to the top of the leaderboard. A clear run would be enough for world honours. In taking second place