NEW LOOK VICTORY TEAM SHAPES UP FOR ’98
* Victory making history as it builds on 10 years of success *
Following a relatively disappointing year in 1997, the Victory Team has announced ambitious plans for the forthcoming season’s racing throughout Europe and the Middle East.
Victory Team chairman, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, has revealed that, not only will the team launch two brand new Class One boats this year, but it will also make history by entering the first all-Arab crew in the U.I.M. Class One World Powerboat Championship.
"Since the Victory Team started competing in 1989, it has always been our aim to have two U.A.E. Nationals competing together at the highest level," said HH Sheikh Ahmed. "This year I am pleased to announce that Khalfan Harib and Mohamed Al Ghaith will take that honour when they represent Dubai and the United Arab Emirates in Victory 4."
The new pairing of throttleman Harib and driver Al Ghaith, is the latest chapter in the 10-year success story that is the Victory Team. Both men have a proven track-record in offshore powerboat racing. Harib is the only man in the sport’s history to have won world titles as both driver and throttleman - he was Class One World Champion in 1993 and Class Two World Champion in 1996 . Al Ghaith on the other hand, finished second and third in the 1996 & 1997 Class Two World Championship’s respectively.
Harib and Al Ghaith will start the new Class One season in last year’s Victory 4, before switching during the season to a state-of-the-art catamaran which is currently under construction at the Victory Team headquarters in Dubai. The new 44ft composite cat - one of two to be introduced later this year – was designed by Michael Peters Yacht Design, but will be built in Dubai by the Victory Team.
The new boat forms part of the team’s ongoing strategy to regain the Class One title that they lost last year to Saudi Arabia’s Laith Pharaon and John Tomlinson of the USA. Powered by two 1998 Lamborghini V12 engines, the new Victory 4 will compete for the coveted title, alongside its established ‘stablemate’ boats, Victory 5 and Victory 7.
Victory 5, the boat which won two Class One world titles in three years, competes in its last season with Saeed Al Tayer as driver and Felix Serralles of Puerto Rico on throttles. Making up the three-pronged Victory attack in Class One will be driver Ali Nasser and throttleman Randy Scism in Victory 7.
"After losing our Class One and Class Two World Championship titles last year, we are even more determined to win them back," said team managing director Khalfan Harib. "This year’s Class One Championship looks like being the toughest in recent years, while in Class Two we will again have to fight against a number of first-rate teams."
At present, the three Victory Team Class One boats are on a ship heading for Italy, the new Victory 4 cat is being finished at the team’s HQ.
Meanwhile, following the recent appointment of Gianfranco Venturelli - former general manager at Automobil Lamborghini - as Victory Team’s new general manager, the team continues to prepare for the future with the development of its workshops. This will include an engine shop dedicated to the rebuilding and development of the V12 Lamborghini engines. Upon completion, the Victory Team plant will be firmly established as a true nerve centre for offshore - a facility with the ability to build boats and rebuild engines in both Class One and Two.
Few could have envisaged such progress when the Team was established in 1989, but as the men in blue look forward with optimism to their 10th year of international competition, the future promises to hold even more success than the past.