CASCAIS, Portugal (AP) — Jimmy Spithill of San Francisco’s Oracle Racing has won the inaugural America’s Cup World Series match racing championship with a two-race sweep of Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand.
There were four lead changes during the two races Saturday in the first stop of the America’s Cup World Series.
Sweden’s Artemis Racing was third, Team Korea fourth and Oracle Racing’s other crew, skippered by four-time America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts, was fifth. Rounding out the field in the fleet of 45-foot catamarans were Team Energy, Green Comm Racing, Aleph and China Team.
A winner-takes-all fleet race involving all nine teams is scheduled Sunday for ranking points that will carry forward through the ACWS. The next stop is Plymouth, England, in September.
