Two top awards in the space of two weeks has certainly topped off a superb year for Frode Sundsdal and his Tønsberg Batrace team.

However, he is not sitting back on his victory laurels just yet:

These two awards are like a shot of ‘Nitro’ for me and the team as we plan for the 2018 UIM F2 Grand Prix of Norway.

The first award came from the Vestfold region and it was awarded for the ‘Best Elite Sports Event’ that took place in the county.

This meant that the Tønsberg Batrace would be up against every sports event that took place in the region including ice hockey, handball and football.

When you see the variety of ‘main-stream’ sports we were competing with, it gives you an idea of just how huge this award was.
I owe a thousand thanks to both Mayor Petter Berg and Fylkesordfører Rune Hogsnes, together with our 120 partners, sponsors and not least the volunteers, without whom we couldn’t have done this event.

Just seven days later Sundsdal and his partner Joyce Christine Andersen were in Oslo to collect the ‘Best Organised Motorsport Event 2017’ which was awarded to them by the Norwegian Motorsport Federation.

This time the event was up against nineteen different motorised categories, which included a diverse mix of motorbikes and snow-mobiles through to remote control racing.

The Tønsberg Batrace must have struck the right note with the forty thousand plus membership who gave it the top award of the evening.

So perhaps Sundsdal is now thinking of retiring from competing on the water to concentrate on what happens off it?

No, I’m way too much of a petrol head to hang up my helmet just yet.
Besides we have a great team in place who are already implementing changes for next year’s event. These include a new race circuit layout, which should bring us into line with the rest of the series, plus we are looking at ways of tightening up the weekend’s time schedule.
There’s no such thing as perfect event, though judging by the feedback we had this year we came very close.