Saturday, March 2: The Victory Team’s Erik Stark kept up the early pressure on his fellow Swede and defending World Champion Jonas Andersson by snatching victory in the second of the Sprint races at the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia on Saturday.
The Swede duly earned 10 championship points to tie with Andersson in advance of the first Grand Prix of the season on Sunday morning on Lake Toba. Stark finished the race 7.138 seconds ahead of the Sharjah Team’s rookie Rusty Wyatt. Frenchman Peter Morin rounded off the podium finishers for the China CTIC Team.
Stark said: “Everything went according to plan. I had a good start and then I could just do my race. Even if it was Sprint, it’s a win. The team works amazing, like always, and the boat is great to drive. Today was a perfect day for us. We get some points. T least we get some points this season. I had Rusty (Wyatt) under control. I felt quite safe.”
Wyatt added: “It was great. I got a great start and was on Erik’s tail the whole time. We got down to the first turn and we had a good race to the second buoy. With that clear water, he just had that little bit more. It was very nice to get that first race under the belt. He had a little bit on me. It was nice racing against him. It was nice to get into 14 laps of race mode.”
“We start at fourth position but thanks to a good start we get position three from Sami (Seliö) at the second corner,” said Morin. “We tried to push and we catch Rusty but it is a good result for us. I want to congratulate all the team who have given a very big effort. It was a good result for us.”
Norway’s Marit Strømøy and double World Champion Sami Seliö finished fourth and fifth and Wyatt’s team-mate Filip Roms, Seliö’s Red Devil-SMC F1 team-mate Ferdinand Zandbergen and Portuguese veteran Duarte Benavente rounded off the eight finishers.
Stark began the second of the Sprint races from pole position and the Swede held his lead into the opening turns from Wyatt and Morin. Strømøy also made a good start in the Mercury four-stroke DAC and held fourth place into the second lap from Seliö, Roms, Zandbergen and Benavente.
Stark continued to pull clear of Wyatt and headed into lap four with a lead of 4.026 seconds. There were no dramas for the Swede and he held on to take the win from the Canadian rookie and Morin.
