Playing with a new line-up

The Quantum Racing team has been on a roll in 2022, winning the first two events on the TP52 Class schedule, the second of which was the World Championship. But when the fleet meets again in Mallorca on July 21-26, the USA squad will be playing with a new line-up.

With owner-driver Doug DeVos sitting this event out, Terry Hutchinson will take the helm, passing on his tactician role to Argentina’s Olympic bronze medalist Lucas Calabrese, who is typically the team strategist. Navigator Michele Ivaldi (ITA) will offer support as needed.

“It will be business as usual,” notes Ivaldi. “We have done plenty of training days in this configuration and we already tested our comms and systems. Terry is a great driver and Lucas has proven himself to be a very strong tactician.”

For sure, Hutchinson is not your usual back-up quarterback. “For certain our preferred afterguard set up is with Doug driving,” notes Hutchinson. “We did the Valencia training session in April in the configuration we will sail here with Lucas doing tactics, Michele navigating, and me helming.

“Lucas and I also cross trained in a J/70 during Charleston Race week to work on our communication and learn our subtleties of how we talk. We will approach the event much in the same way we did the last one. Working on consistent starting, boat handling, and speed.

“But if one of those is not firing, I would suspect it could be a hard week. Our approach is refine the areas on the boat that will get performance improvements over the week. The fleet is quite tight so we know we have to keep pushing.”

What do you get when you have an American, Argentinean, and Italian in the afterguard without an owner? Standing by…

Race details – Teams – Facebook

52 SUPER SERIES 2022 Series (after two regattas)
1. Quantum Racing (USA) (Doug DeVos) 55 pts.
2. Platoon (GER) (Harm Müller-Spreer) 66 pts.
3. Phoenix (RSA) (Toni Norris) 69 pts.
4. Alegre (GBR) (Andrés Soriano) 84 pts.
5. Sled (USA) (Takashi Okura) 87.5 pts.
6. Vayu (THA) (Tom y Kevin Whitcraft) 99 pts.
7. Interlodge (USA) (Austin Fragomen) 110 pts.
8. Provezza (TUR) (Ergin Imre) 115 pts.
9. Gladiator (GBR) (Tony Langley) 133 pts.

52 SUPER SERIES 2022 Schedule
May 23-28 – BAIONA 52 SUPER SERIES SAILING WEEK – Baiona, Spain
June 20-25 – ROLEX TP52 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CASCAIS – Cascais, Portugal
July 21-26 – PUERTO PORTALS 52 SUPER SERIES SAILING WEEK – Puerto Portals, Mallorca
September 26-October 1 – SCARLINO 52 SUPER SERIES SAILING WEEK – Scarlino, Italy
October 24-29 – BARCELONA 52 SUPER SERIES SAILING WEEK – Barcelona, Spain

Source: 52 Super Series