Dubai: The Blue Roo, comprising Brett Luhrmann and Pal Virik Nilsen, threw open the race for top honours with an emphatic victory in the third race of the eight-leg 2017 UIM XCAT World Championship being held on the Nanhai New District Bay, on Saturday.
Starting from pole position, the Aussie-Norwegian pair led from the start to take a fine win while finishing more than a minute clear of the chasing duo of Giovanni Carpitella and Darren Nicholson in their Weihai-China boat, while Rashid Al Tayer and Majid Al Mansouri came in third to add valuable points and go to the top of the overall standings — just one clear of early leaders Victory Team.
Earlier in the afternoon, boats from the UAE had their work cut out after finishing behind The Blue Roo combination of Luhrmann and Nilsen. Current leaders in the overall standings and last weekend’s champions Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali of Victory Team were timed second best behind the Team Abu Dhabi pairing of Al Tayer and Al Mansouri during the three-stage pole position run. Former five-time reigning world champion Arif Saif Al Zafein, who had timed best during Friday’s official practice, teamed up with old teammate and good friend Nader Bin Hindi to end fifth.
Eventually, it was the pole positions that made the race engrossing as teams jostled at the start for clear waters ahead of them. In the chase for the top spot, the Victory Team got a penalty lap, and that led the Dubai team to run a third lap instead of the mandatory two laps.
Team Abu Dhabi played its long lap strategy early during the 15-lap race, and that move nearly paid off for the set-up from the UAE capital on the course set along the Yellow River as they finished in third. The Blue Roo, meanwhile, just maintained a steady pace of 140.81kph to finish well clear of the Carpitella-Nicholson combination in their Weihai-China boat.
Al Adidi and Al Ali, who had made a strong start to the season winning both the races in Zhengzhou last weekend, had gone into the third race with a lead of 10 points over Team Abu Dhabi. But the team from Dubai has now slipped into second overall with 85 points, leaving close friends Al Tayer and Al Mansouri in Team Abu Dhabi at the top with 86 points, while The Blue Roo continued in third overall with 83 points.
Sunday will witness an additional free practice in the first half of the morning, followed by the second race at 2pm UAE time (10am local time) that could see more changes in the overall championship standings.
After this weekend’s third and fourth races in the four-round, eight-race series, the boats will travel to Hangzhou for the next two races of the championship.
RESULTS
Race One of the Weihai Grand Prix — third race of the 2017 UIM XCAT World Championship being held on the Nanhai New District Bay, on Saturday: 1. The Blue Roo (Brett Luhrmann/Pal Virik Nilsen); 2. Weihai — China (Giovanni Carpitella/Darren Nicholson); 3. Team Abu Dhabi (Rashid Al Tayer/Majid Al Mansouri); 4. Swecat Racing (Mikael Bengtsson/Erik Stark); 5. Fujairah Team (Serafino Barlesi/Alessandro Barone); 6. Victory Team (Salem Al Adidi/Eisa Al Ali); 7. Al Wasl (Arif Saif Al Zafein/Nader Bin Hindi); 8. Caccia Engineering (Diego Testa/Daniele Martignoni); 9. Raheeb (Abdul Lateef Al Omani/Moustapha Al Dashti); 10. New Star (Mikhail Kitashev/Dmitry Vandyshev); 11. Lady Spain (Roberto Lopiano/Andrea Comello).
