Monday, 30 June: The Spanish Island of Ibiza is gearing up for the Mediterranean Grand Prix, 5-7 September, a spectacular sporting triple header with the opening rounds of the UIM Class 1 and V1 World Powerboat Championships and round 3 of the UIM-ABP Aquabike Class Pro World Championship.

The countdown to the event officially started at a press conference held at the new Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza with Daniel Gomez Korf, CEO and founder of the Ibiza World Championship (IWC), stating that, “This is a unique opportunity that will put Ibiza at the heart of the global scene of extreme water sports and is for sure an unprecedented event that will help to further promote tourism on the island.”

The three days of non-stop action will see powerboats and Aquabikes rubbing shoulders and sharing centre stage with the Class 1 and V1 paddock in the heart of town at Marina Ibiza, where the evening Freestyle and Slalom events will also take place, with the Aquabike pits and race circuit located at Platja D’en Bossa in front the of Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel and Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza.

The revised World Championship events format ‘Classone’ will see the Class 1 Catamarans and V1 Monohulls running together on a simple mirror-image circuit with separate sets of turn-buoys, Class 1 turning on the inside marks, V1 the outside and a spectacular rolling start with all boats running line-a-breast.

The Class 1 line-up includes the World’s top three, Victory, Zabo-Isiklar, LFF10 and the European Champions LFF8, Team Abu Dhabi, DAC Racing and D’Alessio /SCAM, with V1 teams Searex from Germany, RG87 and Tommy Racing from Italy, Chaudron from Malta and Silverline from the UK.

For round 3 of the Aquabike World Championship, promoter H2O Racing is anticipating another mammoth entry to match the turnout for round 2 in Milan, which saw for the first time the maximum entry in both Runabout and Ski with 25 and 30 riders lining up, as well as seven in Ski Ladies and five in Freestyle.

Photo (from right to left): Marcos Marí, Marina Ibiza CEO; Lavinia Cavallero, Vice President of H20 Racing; Mikel Martínez Astelarra, CEO and founder of the Ibiza World Championship (IWC); Daniel Gómez Korf, CEO and founder of the Ibiza World Championship (IWC); Vicent Serra Ferrer, President of the Consell Insular d’Eivissa; José Miguel Martínez Castejón, Real Spanish Federation of Motorboats President; Carmen Ferrer, Consellera of Turisme d’Eivissa and Jesús Sobrino, Palladium Hotel Group Vice Director.

Click on link to see Ibiza Grand Prix preview.