They’re young. They’re brothers. They’re talented. They’re ambitious. They’re Venezuelan. And they’re heading to Florida next year.

Venezuela’s exports to the USA include oil, chemicals, metals and fertilizers, and powerboat racers could soon be added to the list. Carlos and Jesus Malave from Puerto La Cruz on the southern shore of the Caribbean are making plans to fly the colourful Venezuelan flag in next year’s P1 USA SuperStock race series.

21-year-old Carlos and his older brother Jesus grew up in the port city of Puerto La Cruz and took to the water at an early age. “I had my first boat when I was 14 years old and ever since then I’ve been interested in powerboat racing” explained Carlos. “There’s very little offshore racing here in Venezuela, it’s mostly on rivers, so that’s why we started looking further afield and found the P1 SuperStock series in Florida.”

The brothers travelled to Florida last month to get behind the wheel of the P1 Panther race boat, and their plan is for Carlos to drive with Jesus on the throttles. “It was really exciting” said Carlos. “We have lots of boating experience but we’re new to racing, so we know it will be tough competing in SuperStock as all the teams are very competitive from what we’ve seen.”

Carlos was delighted to hear the news from last month’s UIM General Assembly in New Zealand that the newly-formed Venezuelan Powerboat Federation is now affiliated to the UIM. “Through racing in the P1 series we want to promote powerboating in our own country and hope to attract sponsors who can benefit from our involvement” added Carlos. “We also hope that it will help in organising some offshore events in Venezuela.”

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