All-Time Super Bowl Champ Brady Earns First-Ever E1 Series Victory With Team Win At Jeddah GP
It seemed fitting to report about the National Football League’s winningest quarterback of all time on Super Bowl Sunday, although in this story the reason former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers superstar Tom Brady—aka TB12—is in the headline is because the team he owns won the very first Union Internationale Motonautique E1 Series World Championship in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last Sunday (February 3).
Team No. 12—Team Brady’s Sam Coleman and Emma Kimiläinen—won the first-ever E1 Series race in Jeddah last Sunday. Photo courtesy Oscar Lumley/E1 Series
That’s right, last weekend, the world’s first all-electric raceboat championship saw eight teams battle it out under the Jeddah sunshine on the Red Sea in their Racebird boats, which use innovative hydrofoil technology to lift the vessel above the surface and reduce water resistance. The Racebirds, which were designed by Sophi Horne of Norway and can reach speeds in excess of 90 kph or 57 mph, are powered by a battery with a peak power output of 150 kW produced by Kreisel and an outboard motor supplied by Mercury Racing.
Hailing from Britain and Finland, Team Brady pilots Sam Coleman and Emma Kimiläinen (right)—each team has a male and a female pilot—staged an impressive comeback to best day one leaders Team Miami, which is owned by singer-songwriter Marc Anthony and features drivers Erik Stark of Sweden and Anna Glennon, the only American competitor in the field.
In a combined-time race format from two “Super Final” races, which followed a couple of rounds of semi-final “Knockout” races and the qualifying rounds, Team Brady’s Coleman and Kimiläinen bested Team Miami by nearly 20 seconds with a time of 6.58.51. Team Miami powered by Magnus clocked in at 7.17.268, while cricket superstar Virat Kohli’s Team Blue Rising took third place on the podium at 7.43.835. Fourth place—only four teams qualify for the two Super Final races—went to tennis legend Rafa Nadal’s Team Rafa with a time of 7.51.941.
“The past two days of competition have surpassed all expectations and the passion, commitment and spirit shown by all of the team pilots has been incredible,” said Rodi Basso, the CEO and co-founder of E1, in a press release following last weekend’s series kick-off event in Jeddah. “E1 has firmly landed on the global sporting map, and our next stop in Venice is set to be another tremendous event. Huge congratulations to Team Brady for taking home the first-ever E1 Championship trophy.”
The first E1 season will continue in several breathtaking coastal cities across the world with the next stop in Venice, Italy, on May 11-12 and the series culminating in a Race to Hong Kong on November 9-10.
After entering the record books with the first E1 Series victory, Coleman and Kimiläinen said they were “delighted” to take home the top spot from the debut event.
“We’ve already had a message through from Tom (Brady) and he’s super happy with the win,” Kimiläinen said in the release. “Both Sam and I are so incredibly proud to represent Tom and we’re pleased we were able to make history at E1’s inaugural race.”
Check out the slideshow above for more E1 Series-provided images from the Jeddah GP.
Coleman, who was introduced to powerboat racing in 2013 by his sister Daisy Coleman, found racing success in the P1 SuperStock class where he has won four world championships. Kimiläinen, on the other hand, has been racing cars since 2005. She’s competed in various series, such as the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship and W Series, where she finished fifth in her debut season in 2019. Her best W Series finish came in 2021 when she claimed third place on the podium.
Outside of the debut race results, I’d like to add that I recorded and then watched the first E1 Series race recap on CBS Sports Network and enjoyed a majority of the broadcast. The details on the teams and the boats were informative—Team Miami’s Glennon, a superstar in the making by the way, did an excellent job walking viewers through the Racebird—as was the portion of the show dedicated to the environmental responsibility, awareness and conservation efforts of the E1 Series.
The hydrofoil-style Racebird boats were interesting to watch race in the series premier Photo by Jake Osborne/E1 Series.
he racing, compared to much of what is covered on speedonthewater.com, was less exciting because of the slower speeds, but the format, which included long laps and combined times between teammates, was interesting and watching the boats fly across the water was different. The spectacle of celebrity owners, such as Anthony, Kohli, DJ Steve Aoki and international football icon Didier Drogba, was kind of fun as well. With only four boats on the course at any point, I felt like it might be more exciting to see a race with twice as many boats in the mix.
Other than that, I’d have to say the debut of the E1 Series was a huge success.
“Fantastic. Incredible. Amazing,” said Alejandro Agag, the chairman and co-founder of E1. “What a weekend of powerboat racing with packed out crowds and close competition between eight amazing racing teams.”
For more on the series or to check out the complete schedule, visit www.e1series.com.
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