As a followup to the previous announcement reported here at The Watercraft Journal, 18-time IJSBA World Champion Chris MacClugage will be participating in the globe-trotting UIM Aquabike World Championship, kicking off in Doha, Qatar this March. Late last night, the 40-year-old racer provided a great peek into his race schedule, plans, preparedness, training regiment and weapon of choice for the worldwide series.
Here’s the original announcement:
Hello Macc Racing fans!
First of all we are excited to have another stellar 2014 race program in progress! The best thing that got our year going was that Rachel and I welcomed our new daughter into the world on December 30, which also happens to be my birthday. Looks like we have 2 birthdays to double our family fun and we are really happy with our little baby girl. Our son now has a little sister he can be proud of as we are.
The first week of January I started my training regime. Training is the most important part of race preparedness apart from equipment selection. This same week I received an email from Alec Cavallero from aquabike.net.
For those of you who do not know him, let me tell you who he is. He is the promoter of the UIM personal watercraft race tour. He had invited me to race their entire UIM series. My wife Rachel and I discussed the possibilities and we both decided this was a great fit for Macc Racing and our supporting sponsors.
This series take Macc Racing to 5 stops around the world over the course of the 2014 race season. The UIM series is set up similar to Motogp.com, but a lot less stops involved. It’s the first big news for PWC fans who love the racing aspect.
In order to race for the UIM I had to renew my APBA license and also get a UIM competition license. The APBA also wrote a letter endorsing my professional status as a competitor. Looks like we are ready!
I will be racing a fully equipped Bullett V2 with a Kawasaki 1200cc engine.
UIM rules allow for a 1300cc, but we did not have enough time to build one. We will have one ready to go however for the second round in Milan, Italy. What a great place to have a race! Rusty Gewecke will be flying to the races with me and occasionally my wife Rachel and kids, all I need is to get our daughter her passport and off we go!
I have been training hard to get ready for this championship. My training regime has gotten solid and I’m happy with the results I’ve been getting in my pacing these past 2 months. I am the first ever USA rider to compete in this series. It should be and exciting time.
In order to compete at this level and be able to fly to the events I had to come with a decent budget. This year once again Monster Energy is my number one sponsor. Just like a title sponsor at race events, Monster Energy has a strong commitment to working with the worlds’ greatest athletes and venues. I appreciate their continued support of myself and Macc Racing.
I am fortunate to have acquired a new sponsor for 2014! Check out Eurofin: www.eurofingroup.ch. Eurofin has helped make it possible to attend this amazing UIM world tour.
I have signed with a new wetsuit company: Optimum Racing. I am very excited to be working closely with Fred and to help develop new products. It’s nice to be with a company that is solely interested in jet skiing. At this point my Bullett v2 will be departing from Lake Havasu, Arizona, USA on the 24th and heading towards it final destination in Doha Qatar which is the Middle East for the first round of the tour. I will be departing on the second of March to catch up with the equipment and tune everything when we arrive on scene. I am very excited to be a part of this professional tour and hope to do the USA proud!
Please cheer for Macc
