The Team Racing began on the Tuesday with official practice in the morning and the first round in the afternoon. It was not to be the best day for the UK with both Smith/Brown and Fitzgerald/Thomason having setting problems – recording 3:39.7 and 3:35.2 respectively. Steve Smith found himself with enormous difficulty in even staying inside the flying circle having the slowest model and racing against two large and extremely awkward pilots. We were then to have a surprise when Ross/Turner had their lines declared undersize and illegal – rather strange when the same wire has been accepted at several internationals and championships in recent years. The rule says a minimum of 0.3 mm with an allowed tolerance of 11 microns and the organisers were getting readings below this. Much deliberation followed with a number of other measuring devices showing that the wires were within tolerance. In the end Malcolm and Brian were allowed to fly at the end of the round and they took advantage of a two up race to record an easy 3:15.5 to claim 3^rd place. Fastest in round one were reigning world champions Maret/Perret (FRA) with a 3:14.1 and Bondarenko/Lerner with a 3:15.4

The second day followed the same pattern with official practice preceding round two of the racing. Fitzgerald/Thomason were the first UK team to fly and were affected by the warm-up having to be aborted due to a timekeeping error. The result of this was that Mark lost where the needle was (due to the fact that he winds it in during warm-up) and an extra stop was needed to correct things when it was clearly running a turn open and cooling down. A 3:48.4 was the resulting time. Smith/Brown then flew and obtained close to the best possible time they could with their existing kit coming home in 3:27.3. Ross/Turner then flew an experimental setup and came home with an excellent 3:13.6 (despite at least 5 wasted flicks !) Fastest in this round were Ougen/Surugue (FRA) with a superb new championship record of 3:10.1 and the two younger Surugue brothers also put in a 3:15.4 to consolidate the overall French position (note :- Maret/Perret were flying as reigning champions so did not count towards team positions. One real talking point in round two was the actions of the jury when heavy rain came during the warm-up for a race. The teams were made to complete this race despite models being impossible to hold on to and catches being missed by all teams. The jury then cancelled all other heats until the situation improved but did not give the teams in this race a refly – a clearly unfair disadvantage to the Portuguese, Austrian and Swiss teams involved.

After a days break Friday saw round three again with official practice in the morning followed by the racing in the afternoon. Ross/Turner again managed to improve with a brilliant 3:12.5 despite an extra glided lap on the second stop due to Malcolm cutting a bit late to come in on the first pass. Bondarenko/Lerner also improved their time putting in a 3:13.1 and Ascher/Ascher put in a good 3:16.7 towards the end of the round. Neither of the other two UK pairs were able to improve so we were left with just Ross/Turner carrying the flag into the semi-finals.

The semi-finals were held on the Saturday with round one in the morning and round two in the afternoon.

In the first round of semis it was again Ougen/Surugue who led the way with another championship record of 3:09.8 – many people believing the they had been allowed to whip and fly the back throughout the race when other teams were getting warnings and dq’s. Second fastest were Bondarenko/Lerner with 3:13.9 followed closely by Averine/Martchenko (RUS) with 3:14.1. Ross/Turner recorded a 3:14.6 to occupy 4^th place with no other teams inside 3:20.

The second round semis were to see no change until the final race when a very dubious action was allowed by the Jury. Shabashov/Moskalev (RUS) had not qualified for the semis but were first reserves to fly in the case of reflies causing a two-up race. Sourkov/Yugov withdrew because they thought that Shabashov would stand a better chance than them and the result was a 3:13.8 for Shabashov/Moskalev thus putting them into the final and almost guaranteeing Russia the team prize. This was seen by many as anti-sportsmanlike behaviour and the general feeling was that it should not have been allowed. Perhaps the rules should say that, when a team withdraws, the first reserve available that is not from the same nation will be pulled in so as to avoid this type of bending of the rules

So the final was between Ougen/Surugue (FRA), Bondarenko/Lerner (UKR) and Shabashov/Moskalev (RUS) and this was held at the end of the final Sunday. The race began with all three teams off the ground together and Ougen/Surugue having a slight airspeed advantage. A number of flyers suspected that the French model was set a bit hard and they were soon to be proved right when a compression adjustment had to be made around a quarter of the way into the race - taking a few seconds and causing a slight loss in speed. The race progressed without incident with the Ukrainian pair performing lightning quick pitstops and holding a very small lead over the Russians. At the final stop both pairs came in together and Bondarenko/Lerner were first to get back into the air with an incredibly quick stop. A bit of blocking from Shabashov caused the Ukrainian motor to heat up but it was just too late - Bondarenko/Lerner crossing the line first in 6:31.8, Shabashov/Moskalev second in 6:35.5 and Ougen/Surugue coming home in 6:47.6 some 8 laps behind. It was an excellent final to watch with all three teams performing well and the winning pair fully deserving their success at the end of a very consistent set of races.