Dubai
The Victory Team will head into a busy weekend with a pair of boats involved in the UIM F2 World Championship in Lithuania, while former five-time world champion Kevin Reiterer will get his campaign under way at the 2018 UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship in Italy.
In the F2 class, the Victory Team will be led by the duo of Suhail Khalfan and Mansour Al Mansouri, both with varied experiences in the world of powerboat racing. Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al Qamzi is the defending champion in this category that has witnessed the dominance of Swedish drivers led by Erik Stark’s four titles (2011 to 2014) and Pierre Lundin’s two crowns in 2015 and 2016.
The opening round of the F2 World Championship will be held in Kaunas, Lithuania on May 26-27 followed by the second round in Aalborg, Denmark in mid-June before moving to Tonsberg, Norway (August 4-5), Ribadouro, Portugal (September 22-23) and finally to Colombo, Sri Lanka (November 10-11).
“Suhail and Mansour are among our best in this class and want to see how they fare in this class. The ultimate aim is to create and cultivate a pool of powerboat racing drivers who will be capable of racing against the best and be world champions of the future,” Huraiz Bin Huraiz, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Victory Team told Gulf News.
For the first time-ever, Victory Team is venturing into the world of aquabikes while bringing in former five-time world champion racer Reiterer of Austria on board this season. Reiterer, who turns 26 in August, will be starting off in the Ski GP1 Division in the 2018 UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championships to be held in Gallipoli, Italy from May 25-27.
The second round of the championship will also be in Olbia, Italy (June 2-3) followed by a couple of rounds in China with stops in Nansha (September 14-16) and Shanghai (September 21-23) before the racers turn to the UAE for the last two rounds — in Dubai from November 15-17 followed by the season finale in Sharjah from December 11-14.
“We believe Kevin [Reiterer] has the ability to continue being at the top of his class. We have watched him in the past and we feel confident that he will carry the Victory Team in his shoulders across the world. His experience in the world of aquabikes is tremendous and this will help him keep his position at the top of the standings,” Bin Huraiz said.
