Monday, January 29: Aquabike Promotion has been delighted with the early response to what promises to be a captivating season of racing in the 2024 UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship.
A thrilling new venue at Quy Nhon in the province of Bình Đinh in central Vietnam will host the season’s opening round on March 22nd-24th. Across the four major aquabiking disciplines, 55 entries have so far been received from a staggering 25 countries and 20 racers have been contracted for the prestigious Runabout GP1 category.
Among the 20 received so far from 16 nations and four continents in Runabout GP1 are the three riders who finished first, second and third in last year’s UIM World Championship – the French duo of François Medori and Jeremy Perez and Kuwait’s Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq. Medori won two of the four Motos to secure the title by five points from Perez, who won the first of the two Motos on Lake Toba in Indonesia. Four consistent results and two podium finishes earned Al-Abdulrazzaq the bronze medal.
Andrzej Wisniewski won the second of the Motos in northern Sumatra on his way to fifth in the title race behind Alejandro Molina Miranda and the Pole returns in his quest for honours in 2024. The impressive list of registered drivers contains the Swedish duo of Samuel and Johan Johansson, Hungarian front-runner Gyorgy Kasza and the talented American racer Anthony Radetic. Juan Cruz Lezcano returns for another season of international racing and also represents the United States of America alongside Dustin Farthing.
Italy’s Lorenzo Benaglia finished down in 20th position in last year’s Runabout GP1 Championship and he and Czech racer Martin Doulik will be hoping to challenge for top five finishes this season.
Denmark will be represented by Rasmus Koch Hansen, Ruben Jimenez Riquelme will race under the Spanish flag and Frederik Brandao will represent Germany.
Japan’s Jun Ikoma, Lithuanian’s Egidijus Kirilevicius, Bulgarian racer Yordan Nikolov, Portugal’s Lino Araújo and Slovakian biker Mario Lamy round off a truly impressive international field.