Land Rover BAR Win Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Regatta in Oman
Land Rover BAR up on foils Racing Day 2 Photo: Ricardo Pinto, ACEA
Despite a penalty and collision with Groupama Team France on Racing Day 1 and two penalties at the start on Racing Day 2, Ben Ainslie’s Land Rover BAR maintained their lead and win the America’s Cup World Series event in Oman.
Today’s wins position Land Rover BAR 2 points ahead of ORACLE TEAM USA in Oman and 1 point behind them overall (see below).
Overall Results from the weekend races in Oman:
- Land Rover BAR 76
- ORACLE TEAM USA 74
- Emirates Team New Zealand 70
- Groupama Team France 68
- SoftBank Team Japan 61
- Artemis Racing 56
The six contenders for the 2017 America’s Cup went into this weekend’s regatta with the following scores from the 2015 World Series races with overall 2015-16 running totals as of the end of today:
- Emirates Team New Zealand 122 (192)
- ORACLE TEAM USA 112 (186)
- Land Rover BAR 109 (185)
- Artemis Racing 105 (161)
- SoftBank Team Japan 100 (161)
- Groupama Team France 82 (150)
ORACLE did close the gap overall going from 10 behind ETNZ to only 6 points behind and at the same time, Land Rover BAR moved from 3 behind ORACLE to only 1 point behind them overall. Beating out ORACLE TEAM USA, Groupama Team France took their first victory in the America’s Cup in race 6, which thrilled this new “underdog” team. They had not scored higher than a 3rd place all through 2015 and in race 5 won a 2nd place spurring them on to their 1st place win.
Groupama Team Frances takes 1st place in race 6. Photo: Ricardo Pinto, ACEA
NBCSN will air the highlights of the Oman regatta on March 12 at 6pm. The six contenders will meet up again in New York for the New York Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series regatta on the Hudson River. They will race on the Lower Hudson against the Manhattan skyline May 7 and 8. The New York event will be the second of six World Series events planned for 2016 as the best sailors in the world compete for points that affect their position in the 2017 America’s Cup.
It was history-in-the-making with Oman hosting the races this year – the first time the Middle East has participated in the entire history of the America’s Cup.
