COCOA BEACH, Florida: Spirit of Qatar’s Ali Al Neama and Mohammed Al Nasser finished a solid fifth overall in the Superboat class at the Space Coast Super Boat Grand Prix in Cocoa Beach, Florida, yesterday.
Racing for the first time at the helm of Spirit of Qatar 20 – the ex Reliable Carriers MTI catamaran – the pair lined up alongside WHM Motorsports, Team CRC, Team Stihl, Warpaint and JD Byrider in the Superboat class.
Blustery conditions and breaking waves were prevalent as the Superboats joined the Superboat Unlimited, Turbine and Superboat Extreme entrants for a combined set of races over 16 and 13 laps of the offshore course.
WHM Motorsports’ William Mauff and Jay Muller emerged as comfortable winners by the margin of 29 seconds in the Superboat class from Tony Marcantonio and Mark Kowalski at the helm of JD Byrider. The latter crew managed to pass Team Stihl in the closing stages after the pre-race Superboat category leaders had held second position through the early laps. Team CRC finished fourth and Spirit of Qatar moved up to fifth when Warpaint hit trouble late on. WHM Motorsports now leads the Superboat Championship after two races.
“It was important that Ali and Mohammed got as much seat time in the new boat as possible and finished the first race,” said HSheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al Thani, president of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), who hopes to begin his own Super Boat International campaign with throttleman Steve Curtis at the next round at the start of June.
The Peninsula
