The Powerboat P1 Grand Prix is again being held this year and it will be the first on the world championship calendar of the year.

This was confirmed yesterday morning by Martin McDonald, Commercial Director of KBL Powerboat Management Ltd during a news conference at the VISET premises.

The event is to be held on 6, 7 and 8 May with the host city being Valletta, as was the case last year, when it was held here for the first time.

“We will create a P1 Corporate Village at VISET Waterfront, the Race Truck Dry Pit Area and the Race Boat Wet Pits,” said McDonald.

He also said that they wanted this event to become an annual fixture on the racing calendar and hoped that it would provide the focus on Malta as another Signature Venue, creating a dynamic, innovative and highly desirable image of Powerboat P1’s partners and the sport itself. “We hope that eventually Malta will also become globally synonymous with Powerboat racing, just as Monaco is with Formula One,” he said.

P1 is made up of two classes. “The sport is becoming more professional with major manufacturers already taking part such as the famous brand names of Donzi, Apache, Lamborghini, Seatek, Isotta Frascini and Steyr.

Among those taking part will be Malta’s team Chaudron which consists of brother and sister pilots Aaron and Audrien. They also took part in three races last year. “They were very unlucky with some mechnical faults. We hope they will fare much better this year as they have already gained the respect of other drivers,” said McDonald.

He added they were in the process of building and developing business partner relationships with several sectors of the Maltese economy and these included the Malta Tourism Authority, Air Malta, Malta International Airport, Malta Maritime Authority, Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, City of Valletta, Ministry for Tourism, Malta Cruise Network and Malta Enterprise.

Minister for Tourism Francis Zammit Dimech spoke about the importance to the island of such an event. “It fits in well with our plans with the Grand Harbour and Valletta providing a great historic background. We will do our best to help the organisers to ensure this event will become not just a powerboat race, but a powerful happening in Malta,” he said.

Other speakers were Paul Borg Olivier, mayor of Valletta, Chris Falzon, managing director VISET Waterfront, Geoffrey Cutajar, marketing director, Malta Tourism Authority and Reuben Caruana, managing director, Sign-It.