Victory Team look to continue strong early form
Dubai: The two outfits from the UAE will renew their rivalry this weekend as teams head for Weihai in the second round of the 2017 UIM XCAT World Championship in the Chinese province of Shandong.
Last week’s inaugural race of the season saw an eternal battle between the defending world champions, Victory Team, and their leading challengers, Team Abu Dhabi from the UAE capital. Ultimately, it was Victory Team’s Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali who came out on top in both races — leading from start to finish — to keep a ten-point advantage over Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al Tayer and Majid Al Mansouri.
The Victory Team duo now lead the overall standings with 70 points, while Team Abu Dhabi are in second with 60 following their two second-place finishes.
Australian Brett Luhrmann and Norway’s Pal Virik Nilsen rounded off the podium places on race two in Zhengzhou and they are only 22 points behind the leading Dubai boat in third place in the points’ standings. Caccia Engineering, 222 Offshore and the Fujairah Team make up the top six after a quarter of the races in the new UIM-sanctioned series that sees two races being held at each of the four rounds of the world series this season.
Both races on Saturday and Sunday will take place in Nanhai New District Bay and offer the first offshore challenge of this year’s series after the opening two races took place on an inland lake in Zhengzhou.
The qualifying session will be split into three sessions with all 11 boats allowed to take to the water for the opening session. The third and final session will pit the fastest three boats with the topper earning the right to start in pole position.
“Two wins in their first two races has given us a huge confidence. We are comfortable with the way our boat is handling. This weekend will not be about just winning, but about asserting ourselves over the rest of the field. And for this we will continue at the same level, and hopefully we will even try to do something better than what we did in the first two races,” Al Adidi told Gulf News from Weihai yesterday.
“As a new team we are very, very happy to get this result and be where we are. We have worked hard and pushed harder to get where we are today. But this is in keeping with our philosophy at Victory Team where we are called to be the top always,” Al Ali chipped in.
As per the weekend’s plan, the first of two races will be held on Saturday evening followed by a further official practice at 11 hrs (7 am UAE) on Sunday and will be followed by the second Zhengzhou Grand Prix starting at 14.30hrs (10.30 am UAE time).
STANDINGS: 1. Victory Team (70 pts); 2. Team Abu Dhabi (60); 3. The Blue Roo (48); 4. Caccia Engineering (38); 5. 222 Offshore (34); 6. Fujairah Team (33); 7. New Star (25); 8. Swecat Racing (22); 9. Raheeb (15); 10. Lady Spain (10); 11. Al Wasl (9).
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