X-Cat Dubai GP

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XCAT World Series– Gold Coast.Australia gives a real run for the money

Gold Coast.Australia proved to be the quickest of the pack in the first official practice ahead of tomorrow’s Dubai GP – the second round of the 2016 UIM XCAT World Powerboating Series.

Tom Barry-Cotter and Ross Willaton, who finished second in last weekend’s Fujairah GP, were the only boat to dip under the two minutes 37 mark, recording a fastest lap 2:36.573 for top spot.

Second were the Dubai 33 team of Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali (fourth last weekend) with a time of 2:37.230.

Recording the third fastest time of the afternoon (2:37.306) were the Altman Marine pair of Jay Price and Sean Torrente, who were particularly pleased with their showing considering this was the first time trying out the newly introduced XCAT Mercury ROS 400 engines. The American drivers competed with the old engines last weekend, where they finished in seventh place and will be looking to finish further up the table in this race.

Speaking about the experience afterwards, Price said: “We had a little learning to do the first couple of laps out. It’s just a completely different drive. The acceleration is different, the way you need to lay the boat over for the turn is different. We’re figuring it out little by little and we’re getting right up there with the leaders for sure. I think we can give them a real run for their money.

“The speed I don’t find to be that much different. It’s the acceleration and it’s the power it has to push through the waves. You’re able to run the boat a little flatter and keep control of the boat.”

Reacting to the team’s result of third quickest in the first official practice, Price added: “We are really excited because we feel like we’re right there. I mean we’re not a whole lot off the leader and we can find this time really easily with a little adjustment. And the fact that we didn’t push the boat to its ultimate – we are still learning it – is so exciting.”

The Lady Spain team won’t have as much time to learn and make adjustments as originally thought. Due to high winds forecast for Saturday, the Dubai GP has been brought forward by a day – meaning the 14 international teams will be contesting for the title on Friday afternoon.

“We’ll have another chance for free practice and then we’ll go to qualifying and then the race. With the race being moved up one day we would have liked to have that luxury of a couple more changes in the set-up but we adapt pretty quickly. I’m lucky to have a really good driver with me and we’ve got a really good relationship. After a few laps we really got together on it,” explained Price.

The XCATs will be back on the water on Friday morning for the all-important race for Emaar Pole Position at 10.30am while the main race – the Dubai GP – gets underway at 3.30pm

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Victory Team soar to another win in thrilling race

The Victory Team pair of Aref Saif Al Zafe’in and Nader Bin Hindi fought off a slow start to win the second round of the 2016 UIM XCAT World Series at the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC).

Dubai: Victory Team maintained their hold on the top spot of the overall standings while notching an exciting win in the second round of the 2016 UIM XCAT World Series at the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) on Friday.

Chasing early leaders Abu Dhabi Team 5 for the first few laps of the 16-lap race on the Mina Seyahi breakwaters, the Victory Team duo of defending four-time world champions Aref Saif Al Zafe’in and Nader Bin Hindi maintained their cool to eventually overtake Rashid Suhail Al Tayer and Faleh Khalfan Al Mansouri with six laps remaining.

“We think that they [Abu Dhabi Team 5] may have jump started the race. So the challenge early in the race was to push as much as possible and see how much we could catch up on them,” Bin Hindi told Gulf News.

“And once we went clear then the focus was to just keep pushing and go for an all-out win and get the points. This is our home race and we are always hungry for the top spot.”

Despite ending second, Abu Dhabi Team 5 were pleased with the podium finish.

“The main thing is to be competitive and give the audience something to be excited about. We lost a few seconds on the long laps and that is when Victory Team gained ground on us,” Al Tayer said.

“We are happy with the way the boat has been shaping up in the first two rounds of this series and I am confident we can get even better in time for the third round,” he added.

The start was fantastic with Abu Dhabi 5 sneaking to the front chased down by Victory Team even as Swecat Racing and Gold Coast Australia tussled for third and Dubai 33 eased into fifth. Initially, it was a mere 2.31 seconds separating the top two boats, but as the race progressed Abu Dhabi Team 5 increased this to 3.58 seconds.

Victory Team took the first of two long laps early and then lay in wait for the race leaders to go on the long lap. At the end of the first long lap they came close to overtaking and by the time Abu Dhabi Team 5 had taken its second long lap, Victory Team had managed to stay 2.75 seconds clear of them.

“Perhaps that was the most important moment of the race. We were never going to give up without a fight. Ultimately, it was the small things that mattered and I am happy with our second win of the season,” Zafe’in said.

Earlier in the morning, Victory Team had contested a near perfect run to take pole position ahead of Gold Coast Australia, Swecat and T-Bone Station – one of three boats who are still racing with the old two-stroke engines.

On Saturday, the 14 boats will be involved in the one-on-one Dubai Duty Free Speed Cat Run starting at 2.30 pm.

RESULTS: 1. Victory Team (Aref Al Zafe’in/Nader Bin Hindi);
2. Abu Dhabi Team 5 (Rashid Suhail Al Tayer/Faleh Khalfan Al Mansouri);
3. Swecat Racing (Mikael Bengston/Erik Stark);
4. Dubai 33 (Salem Al Adidi/Eisa Al Ali);
5. Carpisa Yamamay (Alfredo Almato/Diego Testa);
6. Gold Coast Australia (Tom Barry Cotter/Ross Willaton);
7. T-Bone Station (Giovanni Carpitella/Luca Formilli Fendi);
8. Team Australia (Pal Virik Nilsen/Brett Luhrmann);
9. Fujairah Team (Serafino Barlesi/Alessandro Barone);
10. Six (Matteo Nicolini/Tomaso Polli).

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Victory Team complete clean sweep to extend early XCAT Series lead

Dubai 33 came the closest to beating them

Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir bin Hendi put the finishing touches to a perfect weekend’s racing with victory in the Dubai Duty Free Speed Cat Run in Dubai on Saturday.

Competing in the second round of the 2016 UIM XCAT World Powerboating Series, the Victory Team duo had already claimed top honours in the race for Emaar Pole Position and then also in the Dubai GP on Friday.

So the Speed Cat Run victory completed their clean sweep of the weekend’s events and saw them extending their lead at the top of the overall Series standings after victory at the Fujairah GP last weekend as well.

Al Zaffain and Bin Hendi now have a 31-point lead over the Swecat Racing team of Erik Stark and Mikael Bengtsson who are second while the Dubai 33 pair of Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali are third overall, another four points back.

It was Dubai 33 who took on the Victory Team in the final of the DDF Speed Cat Run and came the closest to beating them. Had the race been about 10m longer, it could in fact have been a very different result.

But it was not to be and Al Adidi and Al Ali were, in the end, content with their podium place after finishing fourth and missing out on the podium in Friday’s Dubai GP.

The Victory Team started off the Speed Cat heroics with a win over Abu Dhabi Team 5 (Rashed Al Tayer and Faleh Al Mansoori) in the first round before getting the better of the Fujairah Team (Serafino Barlesi and Alessandro Barone) in the second.

They then came up against and beat a fired-up T-Bone Station team (Giovanni Carpitella and Luca Fendi) in the semi-final to book their showdown against their teammates, Dubai 33.

Dubai 33 got the better of Spirit of France (Francois Pinelli and Saul Bubacco) in their first round run before defeating Six (Tomaso Polli and Matteo Nicolini) in the second round and then Team Australia (Brett Luhrmann and Pal Virik Nilsen) in the semi-final.

T-Bone Station, meanwhile, defeated Team Australia in the race-off for third spot to repeat their podium performance of last weekend.

Speaking after the weekend’s racing had come to an end, Bin Hendi said: “We had the same set-up as the Fujairah race and we were very happy with the acceleration. We knew that we got a very good start and the wind was with us so it was great and it was a good fight with our teammates.

“We are very happy with the weekend’s results because there are still a lot of races to come and every championship point counts.”

Dubai 33’s Al Ali added: “When we got to the final, we were very happy to go against Arif and Nadir - the champions. I pushed very, very hard for the win but they did a great job and won - and my team won.”

As for T-Bone Station, who are still running the old Mercury 2.5 EFI engines while the majority of others in the field have switched to the newly introduced XCAT Mercury ROS 400, Carpitella explained that things could potentially have ended differently.

“There was a lot of wind and our boat is light so it really affected us. We tried three different lines from the start. The first one, we had to make too much correction.

“The second one was completely wrong - which was the one with Victory Team and the third one was perfect so we got good speed and acceleration and it was fantastic. So, if we had done this line against the Victory Team I don’t think they could catch us. But that’s how it is.”

With the curtain coming down on two sensational weekends of racing, the spotlight now shifts to Europe where the third round of the XCAT World Series will take place in Lugano from June 4-5.

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