BMW Oracle Racing starts second stage with a victory
 

VALENCIA, Spain ??” BMW Oracle Racing beat United Internet Team Germany on Sunday to start the second stage of Louis Vuitton Cup racing.

The Americans, which led after the first round of America??™s Cup challengers??™ series with just one defeat, beat the Germans by three minutes, 17 seconds.

"Some are easy and some are hard, but today was one of the easier ones," BMW Oracle Racing mid-bowman Tony Kolb said. "Every race is a real race and we have to stay serious."

BMW Oracle Racing leads with 23 points, two more than Luna Rossa of Italy, which beat last-place China Team by 2:57 on the "Romeo" course. Emirates Team New Zealand is third with 18 points.

The Chinese were sailing for the first time since a problem to their keel box on Thursday forced them to stop racing. China Team couldn??™t capitalize on a slow rounding by the Italians around the second mark and had to gybe before its spinnaker fell and caught water, dragging it to a standstill.

In a race that saw the lead change four times, Victory Challenge of Sweden beat Shosholoza by 0:52 after overtaking the South Africans on the final downwind sprint to the finish.

Shosholoza led coming round the leeward gate ??” but broke a spinnaker pole to cost it any chance.

"As a match-race they definitely should have won that match," Victory Challenge mid-bowman Keats Keeley said. "We definitely had a little bit of luck and we were definitely prepared to take advantage of it."

Racing on the southern "Juliet" course was postponed until Monday after erratic wind delayed sailing for much of the afternoon.

Desafio Espanol is fourth with 17 points in the final semifinal place.

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