Money talks in challenger series

By HELEN TUNNAH

Touted as the battle of the billionaires, the eight teams left in the Louis Vuitton challenger series have already split into the rich and the not-quite-so-rich.

The top four spenders have qualified in the top four places for the quarter-finals; the syndicates with tighter budgets have been squeezed into the knockout, bottom half of the contest.

Alinghi of Switzerland, Prada of Italy and United States challengers Oracle BMW Racing and OneWorld Challenge have between them spent about US$310 million ($625 million) trying to become Team New Zealand's challenger for the America's Cup.

Sweden's Victory Challenge, GBR Challenge of Britain, Team Dennis Conner and Le Defi Areva of France have spent a comparatively paltry US$135 million ($272 million).

Realistically, it will take an upset for one of the bottom four to fight their way past the top group and into next month's semifinals.

Alinghi, led by former Team New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts, remain the favourite to win the Louis Vuitton Cup in January, having dropped just two races in the opening round robins.

But they had excuses for not managing a clean sweep: a crew error against OneWorld, gear failure and (according to one of their keenest rivals) a bit of shadow boxing against Oracle.

Alinghi made no bones about why they chose to race Prada in the best of seven races quarter-finals which begin today. Prada are a team which have been on the back foot, and Alinghi can keep the pressure on the Italians.

The team have made major repairs to both boats, and have had the second boat, ITA80, on the water for just a few days.

Coutts, who led Team New Zealand to their 5-0 thrashing of Prada in the America's Cup three years ago, is not expecting another walkover, saying he expects quarter-final racing to be tight.

"We all know that they are a very good team. In fact all the matches that we're going to see now are very even matches."

The Prada-Alinghi tussle will also re-introduce to the gulf the last cup's battle of the tacticians, with Brazilian Torben Grael up against another New Zealander, Brad Butterworth.

In the other top four duel, Australian Peter Gilmour and New Zealander Chris Dickson should provide some of the most aggressive racing of the quarter-finals, particularly in the pre-starts.

Oracle made a marked improvement after Dickson's return (and some boat modifications), and already there is speculation of more changes to Oracle's decision makers in the afterguard, perhaps affecting New Zealander John Cutler or Italian Tommaso Chieffi.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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