Nick Williams, son of former Formula One Powerboat Champion Tony, will make his debut in the P1 SuperStock Championship this year after becoming the first racer to sign-up for Britain's biggest powerboat series in the headline P1 250 Class.
The 32-year-old, who is Managing Director of Mayfair-based International Foreign Exchange, one of the UK's premier currency exchange and international payment consultancies, will pilot a 250hp Panther 28SS boat alongside navigator and close friend Aaron Emmett (Amersham).
Despite his father's tremendously successful heritage in powerboat racing, Williams will go into the 2012 P1 SuperStock season very much a newcomer to the sport having only ever contested a couple of small club events in his youth. On dry land, he has competed in karting and off-road enduro-motorcycling.
"My company, IFX, looks after the currency exchange for P1", explains Williams, "I spoke to the organisers, had a meeting and I was asked if I'd like to consider racing in the championship - I said of course I would like a go, so it's all come together from there.
"I really am going into this completely new, I've only done a couple of small club races before when I was younger. Other than that, I havedone a bit of go-karting and KTM enduro but that's it. This will be a new experience and I'm very much looking forward to it."
Like Williams, 37-year-old Emmett is a complete racing novice although he is used to the adrenalin rush of high-speed as a regular exponent of trackdays - both in supercars, like his Ferrari F430, and riding superbikes such as his Yamaha R1. Such is his love of all things mechanical, he is also currently eight hours into his pilot's licence course.
Day to day, Emmett is a highly successful serial entrepreneur, currently Managing Director of movie streaming and download business Filmlounge.com, and also an active member of his local community through his role as an Amersham town councillor."I'm brand new to powerboats, Nick has a bit more heritage where that's concerned from his family, but it's all completely new to me", he commented, "I've never been in a powerboat, let alone raced one, so this is very much starting from the ground up. We're coming in at an entry level without experience but we're both very competitive and have a serious intention to win.
"We want to make our mark this year, we're not underestimating the opposition and those teams who've been doing this for a while, but we do intend to move forward as the season progresses and begin to challenge up at the front."P1 SuperStock is preparing to build on a fantastic 2011 season in which the then reigning P1 150 Class champions John Wilson (Coleshill, Birmingham) and Neil Scarborough (Monks Risborough) won the inaugural P1 250 title in their Pertemps-backed Panther.
The 2012 campaign is scheduled to begin on 19/20 May with the Plymouth Grand Prix of the Sea before moving on to Hull on 16/17 June and then Eastbourne, a new venue on the SuperStock calendar, over the weekend 14/15 July. Cowes in the Isle of Wight will host the fourth event of the championship on 25/26 August with the grand finale once again scheduled to take place in Liverpool on 15/16 September.In addition to the boats from P1 SuperStock, the UK's only jet-ski category to compete on the sea - P1 AquaX - will also feature at each of the five events.
