Andrea Bacchi and Giovanni Carpitella won Race 2 of UIM Class 3D World Championship Round 1 at Rodi Garganico on Sunday, with D10 Gasbeton taking the win after a weekend dominated by a dispute over how the race itself should be run. Reigning champions Blu Banca, who did not start Friday’s Race 1 in protest, returned to finish third.
Race 2 Result
| Pos | No | Boat / Crew | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | km/h | nm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D10 | Gasbeton Andrea Bacchi / Giovanni Carpitella | La Vida Loca (ITA) | 12 | 33’22.8 | – | 148.20 | 80.02 |
| 2 | D96 | Foresti & Suardi Francois Pinelli / Saul Bubacco | CRB Offshore (FRA) | 12 | 33’28.5 | +5.7 | 147.78 | 79.79 |
| 3 | D20 | Blu Banca Serafino Barlesi / Joakim Kumlin | Team Blu Banca (ITA) | 12 | 33’42.5 | +19.7 | 146.76 | 79.24 |
| 4 | D6 | Tessilmare Giampaolo Montavoci / Francis Notschaele | Ass. Motonaut (ITA) | 12 | 34’05.3 | +42.5 | 145.12 | 78.36 |
| 5 | D101 | Johnsson Racing Markus Johnsson / Jussi Myllymaki | Johnsson Racing (FIN) | 12 | 34’23.8 | +1’01.0 | 143.82 | 77.65 |
| 6 | D5 | Groth Fyro Racing Frederik Groth Fyro / Filip Eriksson | Groth Fyro Racing (SWE) | 12 | 34’30.6 | +1’07.8 | 143.35 | 77.40 |
| 7 | D8 | Marco Fabio Magnani / Lorenzo Prosperi | Ass. Motonaut (ITA) | 12 | 36’00.3 | UNVERIFIED | UNVERIFIED | UNVERIFIED |
Not classified: D55 Energima Racing (Erik Johansen Sundblad / Andre Strand, NOR) retired on lap four after completing three laps. D17 Hosestechnology (Roberto Lo Piano / Fernando De Mitri / Leopoldo Assi, ITA) retired on lap two after completing one lap.
Fastest lap of Race 2 went to Andrea Bacchi aboard D10 Gasbeton, 2’48.9, at 150.00 km/h and 80.99 nm/h.
A Weekend Defined By How the Race Was Run
The reigning World Champions Blu Banca did not start Friday’s Race 1, in protest at a course format that gave four-stroke boats a four percent shorter lap than the established two-stroke fleet, despite both engine types being scored in a single classification.
Driver Joakim Kumlin told Powerboat News the figure had no testing behind it, calculated rather than proven.
Documents posted at the event over the weekend show where that calculation came from.
UIM COMINOFF President Jean-Marie Van Lancker set out the four percent split, and the exact lap maths behind it, in a high-priority email sent the night before racing began, copied to senior UIM staff and the Commissioner appointed for the event.
Van Lancker’s own message acknowledged the uncertainty in his figures, noting that if the difference proved too large in practice, teams could ask him directly for changes to the second race.
That is effectively what has happened.
An official bulletin issued Saturday scrapped the engine-based split entirely for Race 2.
Every boat ran the same lap, the separation buoys were removed from the circuit, and the race was set at the same distance as Friday’s.
Blu Banca’s return to the water, and to the podium, came under that revised, single-lap format. The status of Friday’s Race 1 points has not been officially confirmed either way.
The Engine Question Was Not New
Powerboat News reported on the coming two-stroke to four-stroke transition in Class 3D back in January, when the Mercury 200 XS two-stroke’s homologation was confirmed to expire at the end of 2026 and the Mercury 200R four-stroke was permitted for the first time.
That report noted an early performance gap identified during single-engine testing in Norway, and detailed plans for Team Energima to run further testing in late January using loaned 200R engines, open to the wider championship. Two regulatory routes were already under discussion at that stage: a minimum weight increase for boats continuing on the two-stroke under exemption, or a move to Mercury 300R engines with dedicated ECU mapping to match existing performance. Five-time champions Team D20, racing this season as Blu Banca, were already named as a team weighing the switch.
Both routes mirror the equivalency mechanism F1H2O and F2 use today, a published minimum weight differential rather than a differentiated race distance.
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John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
