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Langdon’s Raid on more honours

John Moore on 25th April 2021

British racer, Drew Langdon will be competing in the classic Italian Raid Pavia to Venezia river race.

Langdon’s recent successes in offshore racing have included winning the Harmsworth and Beaverbrook trophies and in single seater racing he captured the 2018 Asia Powerboat Championship title in Hong Kong.

Langdon won the 2018 Asia Powerboat Championship in Hong Kong

The chartered architect and commercial property developer from the West Country has kept himself busy during the UK winter lockdown with an exciting restoration project which he had intended to enter the Raid race with.

Bob Spalding’s 1980 Velden

Langdon fully restored a Velden F1 catamaran that was raced by British driver Bob Spalding and he won the 1980 Paris Six Hours race in it.

However, the race organisers deemed that the wooden circuit cat wouldn’t fit their rules and the 2019 Cowes Torquay Cowes winner had to come up with another ride with a suitable historical pedigree.

He contacted Paul Hopwood who had recently lovingly restored Gina Campbell’s 25′ Phantom, Agfa Bluebird and if all goes well, Langdon will be using the twin Mercury powered hull in Italy.

The boat built in Sittingbourne, Kent in 1984 by the late Steve Baker, will be specially adapted as a single seater for Langdon to race solo on the river.

Paul Hopwood has restored the Phantom 25′

Obviously, at this stage, it’s still not clear if travel from the UK to Italy will have eased up by June, but Langdon is used to overseas logistics having successfully competed in the international Powerboat P1 series.

The 400 KM race will be held on June 6 and is organised by the The Pavia Motorboat and Venice Motorboat associations, the boats start in Pavia and race to Venice on the same day.

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