While they didn’t head to the front from the start, an almost perfect long lap strategy saw the pair take the lead in the ninth lap and eventually power to a 17-second win over second-placed Abu Dhabi Team 5.
The battle for third spot was eventually where all the action was with Swecat, Gold Coast Australia and Dubai 33 battling it out for the final podium spot. But it was the Swedish Swecat team of Mikael Bengtsson and Erik Stark who finally took it with Dubai 33 struggling with their power steering for the final three laps and Gold Coast losing some power in one of their engines.
Speaking after the race, Victory Team’s manager Ragesh Elayadeth said: “It was exciting. We know our capacity, we know our capabilities so we kept racing and we planned a strategy – how to overtake them [Abu Dhabi Team 5]. We didn’t want to take a risk on the race course so we kept racing and we applied our long lap strategy and came out in front of them.
“You have to have a good driver, you have to have a good set-up and you have to have a good strategy also, so everything worked well and we knew we could overtake them somewhere in the middle of the race.”
With the Dubai GP being moved a day earlier (after high winds and rough seas were forecast for Saturday), there is still more XCAT action to come this weekend.
The one-on-one, drag race-style Dubai Duty Free Speed Cat Run will be contested at 2.30pm Saturday afternoon, bringing the curtain down on the Dubai GP.
After that, the action then moves to Lugano, Switzerland for the third round of the XCAT World Series from 4-5 June.
