DOHA: Respective race one victories in the SuperCat Lite, SuperVee and SuperCat categories at the inaugural UIM Qatar Cup went to Victory S-3, Outerlimits and Spirit of Qatar 20 at Doha Bay yesterday afternoon.
Qatar’s Mohammed Al Nasser and Nasser Al Nasser reached the chequered flag in fourth position in their Supercat Lite race but Ali Al Neama and Billy Moore were in superb form to win the SuperCat race.
Victory S-3’s Arif Saif Al Zafeen and Nadir bin Hendi qualified on pole for the 10-lap SuperCat Lite race and managed to fend off a strong field to pass the chequered flag seven seconds ahead of eventual race runners-up Robert Nunziato and Dan Lawrence in The Hulk.
Team Abu Dhabi’s Faleh Al Mansoori and Rashed Al Tayer qualified third and rounded off the podium positions, while Mohammed and Nasser Al Nasser climbed from fifth, at the expense of Grant Bruggemann and Gary Ballough in Smart Marine, to snatch fourth place. LA Marine retired on the last lap and Smart Marine succumbed one lap before.
Spirit of Qatar 20’s Al Neama and Moore had claimed pole for the SuperCat race on Wednesday and they were not to be denied an emphatic victory on home waters. They brought their MTi to the finish of the 12-lap race 16 seconds in front of the Outerlimits crew of Joe Sgro and Steve Curtis — the winners of the SuperVee category.
The Kiwi crew of Wayne Valden and Chris Hanley were third in Pro Floors Racing and Jay Cooke and Randy Sweers were fourth. Twisted Metal’s Brett Furshman and Billy Glueck retired on lap six.
Pole Position qualifying for Saturday’s Qatar round of the 2015 UIM World Offshore 225 Championship took place at lunchtime on Doha Bay. EFE Project topped the times with a quickest lap of 1min 57.671sec. Bigchefs-EFE Project qualified second albeit over two seconds behind.
The first C1 and C2 races for an impressive array of Qatari, Kuwaiti and Bahraini teams took place yesterday morning on the shorter Inshore course.
Ten laps were on the agenda for the C1 fleet and Kuwait’s Mohammed Turki Jumaa snatched a 3.12 second victory from Qatar’s Jassim Abdullah Al Buainain. An impressive 10 boats took the start and Kuwait’s Khaled Ahmed Al-Hassan rounded off the podium.
Six C2 boats ran for nine laps in their opening race and the Kuwaiti Ahmed Sulaiman Al-Fassam reached the chequered flag with a margin of just
under six seconds from fellow countryman Ahmed Fouad Abul. Qatar’s Rashid Al-Muhannadi was third.
Today is a more relaxed day for the international crews and the local aqua bike racers take centre stage in front of the pit area. After a briefing and technical checks, the Pro Marathon competitors have a 30-minute practice session from 1pm, before their race starts at 1.45pm.
Both the Inshore and Offshore courses are then open for afternoon testing for the remainder of the UIM Qatar Cup field.
THE PENINSULA
