T-Bone Station out to make amends at Gold Coast GP

21 August 2015, Gold Coast – They’ve had a dismal season so far – breaking down in several races and currently languishing in 10th spot in the overall UIM XCAT World Series standings. But T-Bone Station are determined to set things right at this weekend’s Gold Coast GP.

Giovanni Carpitella and new partner, Australia’s Darren Nicholson, did just three laps in the first official practice but managed to notch up the second fastest time of the day.

Their lap of 2:07.01 was second only to current Series leaders XDubai (Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir bin Hendi) who recorded a lap of 2:06.42.

“It was good. We only did two proper laps with Darren because he had to understand the boat. The boat was very fast today. I’ve never had it as fast as this in a straight line – 120 miles per hour (193km/hr),” explained Carpitella who has had to bounce back from the disappointment of losing out on promising, leading positions in previous races because of technical problems.

“Maybe we can play for pole position tomorrow. We have minimum one or two seconds we can drop down because I made an error and Darren did as well. So if we make a perfect lap, we can drop one second for sure.”

As for the strategy to hopefully avoid any technical issues this time round, Carpitella explained: “We are trying to save everything. This is why we didn’t run too much today – because before, we did one grand prix in official practice, then one more grand prix in pole position, and then in the actual grand prix we broke down so it’s better to wait for the race.”

Nicholson, meanwhile, is simply enjoying the thrill of racing in an XCAT for the first time.

“The first few corners it took me a little while to figure out what it was going to do and where it was going to go but it was good,” he said. “It was a pleasure having Giovanni on the throttles so I’m keen to go out and play again and let’s see how we go.”

Meanwhile, earlier in the day three XCAT pilots, Tomaso Polli, Salem Al Adidi and Erik Stark, made the most of their Australian experience by visiting Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where they got to pet a Koala and feed kangaroos for the first time.

Racing continues on Saturday as large crowds are expected to descend on Doug Jennings Park for the speedy spectacle. With plenty of fun activities on offer, there’ll be a lot to keep the whole family entertained.

Those who can’t make it down to take in the action in person, can catch it all on TV (with races being broadcast live to 450 million homes around the globe) or online via live steaming.