Dubai: Dubai-based Victory Team took their first step towards a record seventh world crown after winning the first round of the Zhengzhou Grand Prix — the opening round of the UIM XCAT World Series — being held in China.
The Victory Team pairing of Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali finished the first round of the 14-lap Grand Prix leaving the Team Abu Dhabi duo of Rashid Al Tayer and Majid Al Mansouri in second place nearly 33 seconds behind the champions.
The tussle for the next three spots was intense while finishing within one second of each other. Leading the frenzy was the Italian outfit of Caccia Engineering with Diego Testa and Daniele Martignoni on board in third place followed by Australia’s The Blue Roo with Brett Luhrmann and Pal Virik Nilsen in fourth and Swecat Racing’s Mikael Bengtsson and Erik Stark, in fifth.
Earlier in the day, Al Adidi and Al Ali were timed with a best lap of 2 minutes, 11.493 seconds to take Pole Position for the first round of the Grand Prix. The Victory Team duo finished a shade better than the Team Abu Dhabi duo of Al Tayer and Al Mansouri’s time of 2:11.353 minutes, while the newly formed combination of Luhrmann and Nilsen finished more than a second away with 2:12.765 minutes in third.
A field of eleven boats started off in the Pole Position run on a narrow, tight circuit, on the flat waters of Long Hu (Dragon Lake) on Saturday morning. Reigning world champion and former Victory Team driver Aref Al Zaf’fein who is participating along with Great Britain’s Scott Williams in their boat ‘Al Wasl’ was seventh best in a time of 2:15.912 minutes.
This week’s Zhengzhou Grand Prix marks a welcome return to the calendar for offshore racing after the UIM Class One racing series failed to find a regular promoter and the UIM took control of XCAT racing and announced a four-race calendar.
Now being run under the auspices of world governing body UIM, the four-race calendar will see three back-to-back Chinese races in Zhengzhou (October 13-15), Weihei (October 20-22) and Xiamen (October 27-29) followed by a finale in Dubai to coincide with the UAE National Day celebrations in the first week of December.
The Victory Team has thoroughly dominated this class of powerboat racing while winning the drivers’ and teams’ championships since the World Series was first launched in 2012.
On Sunday, there will a second official practice session from 11am (7am UAE) followed by the second round of the Zhengzhou Grand Prix at 14.30 (10.30am UAE).
