Report written by Trevor Chatters

It was the second time this year in Znin for most of the drivers in the 125 c.c. Class, for the original race of July 7 / 8^th was abandoned due to high winds. Twenty four competitors representing nine nations attended to contest the UIM World 0-125 Championship. With water approval for 20 boats, elimination heats were required. Defending champion Luigi Colombi (Italy) GSC / GRM failed to complete Group A, as did Ivan Copelli (Italy) having his first race in this category with the GSC / Falc. In Group B Aaslav-Kaasik (Estonia) Kala / GRM and Wayne Turner (UK) BettaBoat / GRM were unlucky to be squeezed out at the start by Salvatore Chiuri (Italy) BettaBoat / GRM who was docked one lap but still qualified. Kaasik and Turner had to take part in the reprecharge when they were forced to kill their motors.

The reprecharge therefore had some very quick drivers and some were going to go home disappointed as only four more would go through to the finals. Luigi Colombi booked his place with a win, from Copelli, Aaslav-Kaasik and Turner also went through, but Erko Aabrams and Marcin Zielinski were eliminated.

So the World champion from 2005 Toomas Mets (Estonia) with the Mets/GRM claimed pole position from Russians Vadim Ushakov and Leonid Sabo, with young Diego Bacchiega (Italy) with his Lucas / GRM fourth ahead of Hungarian Viktor Vo (Lucas / VRP). Luigi Colombi stormed straight around the outside of the first buoy to take up a lead he was never going to relinquish all weekend. Sabo and Kaasik were late away, but the rest of the pack chased after Colombi with 16 of the 18 starters taking the chequered flag.. Povvat and Lember from Estonia both failed to start. Toomas Mets came home second with Ivan Copelli 2 seconds behind, then Bacchiega and Chiuri - four Italians in the top five. Ushakov took sixth spot ahead of Polish driver Henryk Synoracki, Turner and Aaslav -Kaasik.

Ivan Copelli had problems in heat two, but Colombi stormed straight to the front ahead of Bacchiega and Mets., and that is how they finished with Chiuri fourth ahead of Turner. Jaanus Lember (Estonia) came home sixth ahead of Ushakov and Sebastian Kecisnski and Daniel Pietrasik of the home nation.

Henry Povvat (Estonia), Robert Hencz (Slovakia) and Jan Joala (Estonia) were also on the same lap as the winner, with Vo, Wetzel and Smaglinski one lap behind and late starting Kaasik failed to score points with insufficient laps completed.

So Sunday morning Colombi was leading with 800 points with Mets on 525 points second. Colombi was away straight into the lead again from Mets, with Chiuri and Bacchiega battling for third ahead of Copelli who was making rapid progress from the back of the grid. Aaslav-Kaasik headed Ushakov and Turner. Sixteen drivers again took the chequered flag with Colombi claiming the World crown with a maximum 1200 points winning the heat by seven seconds from Mets, with Copelli improving up to third another 4 seconds behind, and 6 seconds ahead of Bacchiega in fourth.

With the crown settled, the battle now was for the silver medal. Mets was on pole, but at the first buoy was left nowhere to go and collided with the buoy and stopped. The race was brought to a stop and re-run with Mets taking part under a protest situation and with no plexi glass protection. Copelli with an increase in speed took the lead from the red lights going out with Bacchiega second ahead of Ushakov and then Mets. On lap four the exhaust system on Mets outfit broke, but he had still scored sufficient points to take the silver medal, with Copelli making the bronze.

WORLD 0-125 CHAMPIONSHIP

1^st   36 Luigi Colombi         (Italy)       GSC/GRM    400  400  400   -    1200

2^nd 18 Toomas Mets         (Estonia)    Mets/GRM    300 225  300   0     825

3^rd  45 Ivan Copelli            (Italy)      GSC/Falc    225   0   169  400   794

4^th  90 Diego Bacchiega    (Italy)     Lucas/GRM    169  300 127  300   769

5^th  72 Salvatore Chiuri      (Italy)     Betta/GRM    127 169  225  (95)   521

6^th  50 Vadim Ushakov     (Russia)   Pliev/GRM    95   71   (71)  225   391

7^th  9  Wayne Turner        (UK)      Betta/GRM    53 127 (53)   127   307

8^th 10 Henryk Synoracki   (Poland)    Syno/Syno    71   0     0   169   240

9^th  7 Lembit Aaslav-Kaasik (Estonia) Kala/Kala    40  0    95    53   188

10^th 8 Jaanus Lember      (Estonia)     Kala/GRM    -   95    7     30   132

11^th 73 Henry Povvat       (Estonia)     Tartu/GRM    -   30    22    71   123

12^th 69 Daniel Pietrasik   (Poland)    Mets/Syno    (30) 40   40    40   120

13^th 25 Sebastian Kecinski (Poland)  Syno/Syno    17  53  (17)   22    92

14^th 19 Viktor Vo              (Hungary)  Lucas/VRP    (7)  13  30    17    60

15^th 53 Robert Hencz        (Sovakia)   Betta/VRP    22  22    9     -     53

16^th 66 Jan Joala              (Estonia)    Joala/VRP    9  17    13     -     39

17^th 58 Vivien Wetzel        (Germany) Behncke/GRM    13   9    -      13    35

18^th 2 Gregorz Szmaglinski (Poland)   ?/?            0    7    5       9    21

19^th 26 Leonid Sabo           (Russia)    Sabo/GRM    0    -     -        -     0

20^th 31 Tunde Bedy           (Austria)     0    -    -        -      0

21^st 83 Erko Aabrams        (Estonia)   Kala/VRP        DID NOT QUALIFY

22^nd 5 Marcin Zielinski      (Poland)     Syno/Syno        DID NOT QUALIFY

23^rd 48 Krzysztof Ey         (Poland)     Sandor/GRM       DID NOT QUALIFY

24^th 85 Adam Wozniak     (Poland)     Lucas/Arens        DID NOT QUALIFY