Victory’s
Arif Al Zafeen and Nadir bin Hendi will be the target and team to beat
at this weekend’s BMW Norwegian Grand Prix (15-17 July) in Arendal,
round 2 of the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship.
The
defending World Champions lead the points table after taking maximum
points at the season-opener in Abu Dhabi, and will be intent on adding
to their 23 career wins and maintaining the team’s enviable record in
Arendal, where they have won eight times from 14 starts – winning both
races last year.
Ten boats will
line up for the 14th Grand Prix in Arendal since 1994, and the
tens-of-thousands of partisan spectators who are expected to turn out
for what is considered one of the great events and race circuits on the
Class 1 tour, will be baying for a Norwegian win.
The
fight for Norwegian supremacy and a win on home waters is between
Welmax and Relekta; Jorn Tandberg and Christian Zaborowski won in
Arendal in 2006, but nowadays line up in opposing teams, Tandberg
winning again in 2008, the year he clinched the European title.
Tandberg
partners Kolbjorn Selmer in the Mercury V8-powered Welmax, the
all-Norwegian partnership enjoying considerable success since pairing in
Arendal in 2009, taking ten podium finishes from 21 starts and six wins
in pole position, five of them last year to win the Edox Pole Position
Championship.
Team owner Tandberg
has also confirmed they will run a second boat, ferskfisken.no - the
Maritimo-designed and built hull that they ran as Welmax Alianza in
Brazil last year - and will announce their driver pairing this week.
After
a promising and then rather spectacular start to the year for Relekta’s
Ugur Isik and Christian Zaborowski, posting fifth quickest in
qualifying then crashing out in race 1, Zabo Racing has upped the stakes
in its bid for silverware, buying the championship-winning hull, Fazza,
from Victory Team.
The team has
enjoyed a roller-coaster ride since its launch at the Norwegian Grand
Prix last season, grabbing its first podium in Abu Dhabi last year and
there is now an air of excitement within the team that they have the
complete package to step up their title challenge.
Fendi Racing also fields a new boat whilst Austrian-based DAC Racing roll-out a cut-down version of their Tencara.
Luca
Formilli Fendi and Giovanni Carpitella will unveil their new
Outerlimits boat-engine package; their decision to run with the
Outerlimits hull and twin 850 SC Outerlimits Powertrain engines sees the
American high-performance boat manufacturer making its debut in the UIM
Class 1 World Powerboat Championship.
Fendi
and Carpitella teamed-up in Class 1 last season and have taken two
podium finishes in six starts, with Carpitella hoping they can at least
repeat his three visits to the podium in Arendal last year.
DAC
Racing’s Guido Cappellini is confident that the extreme modifications
to his Tencara – cutting 120cm from the mid-section and reducing the
overall weight by several hundred kilos – and upgrades to his Mercury
engines, giving 50hp more per engine, will give him and throttleman,
Giampaolo Montavoci, who starts his 100th race in Arendal, a real shot
at competing at the front of the pack and challenging for race honours.
The team runs the restyled DAC 40 as kim.com for the first time in Arendal.
Sheikh
Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and Steve Curtis will lead the Spirit of
Qatar Team’s two-boat attack out onto the fjords, looking for the win
that has so far eluded them in Class 1 since they joined forces in 2008.
And
whilst they [Sheikh Hassan and Curtis] have enjoyed considerable
success together, winning six times and lifting both national and world
titles racing in America, they have had to settle for podium finishes -
six - from their 12 starts in Class 1.
The
team made an impressive return to the Championship earlier this year
stepping onto the podium four times, Sheikh Hassan and Curtis grabbing
two second places, with Matteo Nicolini aiming to keep the pressure on
his teammates and build on his impressive performance with rookie driver
Ali Al Neama, finishing third-quickest in qualifying and third in race 2
- both outfits running Victory-built hulls with SKEMA V12 engines.
And
whilst Curtis is the only member of the team and one of only five of
this seasons’ 22 competitors to have won in Arendal - in 2002 with Bjorn
Gjelsten - both Sheikh Hassan and Nicolini - albeit now in opposing
boats - will be hoping for a repeat of previous successes on Norwegian
fjords in Arendal this week, the pair winning in Oslo in 2004 and in
Trondheim in 2005, the year they won the European Championship.
Team
Abu Dhabi has announced a change in their line-up, bringing in Emirati
Majed Al Monsoori to partner wheelman, Rashed Al Tayer. Both are
experienced racers; Al Tayer already a triple race-winner in Class 1 in
just his second season, whilst Monsoori has come up through the ranks
from Jet Ski competition and single-seater circuit racing. The duo also
competes together in the XCat series and may well be a force to be
reckoned with.
Chris Parsonage
Racing retains the same driver-pairing with Giorgio Manuzzi alongside
Norwegian throttleman Pal Virik Nilsen. The former teammates at Maritimo
Offshore have both enjoyed podium success in Arendal, Manuzzi getting
second and third last year and a third, behind Nilsen, in 2009.
The
Grand Prix weekend gets underway with first practice on Friday
afternoon. A second practice on Saturday afternoon is immediately
followed by qualifying in the Edox Pole Position and race 1, with a
final practice session and race 2 on Sunday.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1. 3 Victory Team - 40pts
2. 96 Spirit of Qatar - 30pts
3= 10 Fendi Racing - 19pts
3= 95 Spirit of Qatar - 19pts
5. 5 Team Abu Dhabi - 18pts
6. 74 Poliform - 10pts
7. 50 Parsonage Racing - 8pts
8. 18 MITI - 4pts
9. 90 Welmax - 3pts
10. 91 Relekta - 2pt
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