Balloch powerboat racer Oban Duncan picked up where she left off 18 months ago, with a dominant victory in the British GT15 Sprint Championship.
The 15-year-old travelled south to Stewartby Water Sports Club in Bedfordshire for her first competition since 2019, with the reigning British GT15 champion showing no signs of rustiness – despite a lengthy spell out of action.
Pole position and two victories in the first races of the season put Oban in a strong position heading into the third and final race of the weekend.
Despite blustery conditions Oban, the only Scottish racer in the field, kept her cool to seal a third victory – and end a perfect weekend.
She told the Lennox: “It was really good to be back. On the Friday when we first went down it was certainly a big change having not been there for such a long time, but it was nice to see everyone.
“Once we started racing again though it was like everything just came back to me. It felt like I’d never been away.
“We hadn’t been out in the boat since the last race (in autumn 2019), so I was a bit concerned about the boat being alright.
“Once we’d done qualifying we were happy that the boat was running perfectly fine and that was it really.
“It was definitely a perfect weekend.
“On Sunday the weather was a bit windier so they delayed our start time. The original plan was for the bigger boats to go out first. Because of their size they can handle more wind.
“But their drivers said they didn’t want to go out because it was so windy so a few of the junior drivers from my event went to the organisers and said we’d race.
“We all agreed so they put us out on the Sunday for our last race and I won that as well.
“We did think it was quite funny that we could handle the weather and the bigger boats couldn’t.”
Whilst Oban was remaining calm, her mum Karen admits she was concerned seeing the youngster head out into the rough waters.
She said: “On the Sunday I was a bit scared. I do get scared as her mum. They are little tiny boats and they go so fast. They are flighty and they could easily flip over.
“If Oban’s comfortable then I’m comfortable though.
“Saturday was amazing. It was brilliant.
“I was more anxious about the boat than how Oban would get on. Normally we’d have it out on Loch Lomond and we’d be practising, training and all of those things. But we haven’t had the time or opportunity.
“Getting it out and making sure it worked was a big relief. Then Oban drove like she always does. She was brilliant.
“I’ve got so much confidence in her.”
Oban’s attention now turns to her local round at Carr Mill in St Helen’s – a mere 230 miles from the family’s Balloch home.
She added: “We’re happy heading into that. We’ve got the boat how we want it and we’re pretty much where we want to be.
“It is our closest venue although it’s obviously still not very close, but it will be nice to get back.
“After that we’ve got another race too so everything is quite close together. It’s good. There’s not much of a gap, not much layover time this
season.”
