There might have been a home victory for Team Abu Dhabi at the final race of the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship season, but they were pipped to the overall title by a point by Victory Team, who regained the world title they had ceded to Team Abu Dhabi a year ago.
Abu Dhabi stunned their arch Dubai rivals to win the third race of the championship at the capital’s Corniche Breakwater yesterday. The Dubai crew earned four points for running the same engines throughout the race and Team Abu Dhabi were penalised for lifting a Mercury valve cover to make necessary engine checks, and only earned two of the four bonus points on offer.
Trailing multiple world champions, Arif Saif Al Zafeen and Nadir Bin Hendi, by 10 points heading into the showdown, Team Abu Dhabi No 6 boat duo of John Tomlinson and Gary Ballough led through the opening lap and began to pull away from their rivals, using a quick three short lap strategy to perfection to enhance the gap.
When the Victory boat slowed to a crawl with a broken propeller and found themselves unable to finish higher than fourth, it looked as though the host team would retain their title in dramatic circumstances by a single point.
“I guess that is why we go racing,” said Team Abu Dhabi’s racing manager Randy Scism. “This is what it is all about. The boys worked around the clock to get the second boat back in the water. We got the first boat running right, so this is unbelievable for us. What a great finish.”
The gripping finale brought down the curtain on an exciting week of Class 1 racing hosted by the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club’s (ADIMSC), which saw Team Abu Dhabi No5 pair Rashed Al Tayer and Majed Al Mansoori hold off Italy’s Giovanni Carpitella and England’s Ian Blacker in Zabo 91 to take second position.
To cap a superb afternoon for the host club, the new XCAT partnership of triple UIM F1 H2O world champion Alex Carella and Faleh Al Mansoori dominated their second race together in two days to claim the inaugural Abu Dhabi Cup.
Carella’s UIM F1 H2O team manager Guido Cappellini said: “This was an incredible afternoon. To win the Class 1 race was a terrific achievement against a very strong team. “The win in the Abu Dhabi Cup is special as well. They finished in front of the team that won the XCAT Grand Prix here last weekend and finished second in the championship.”
