VICTORY 4 WIN IN ITALY
*Gjelsten and Curtis crowned European Champions*
Dubai’s Khalfan Harib and Mohamed Al Ghaith stormed to victory in the Italian Grand Prix in Nettuno, becoming the first all-Arabian crew to win a round of the U.I.M. Class 1 World Powerboat Championship. Run in extreme conditions over a shortened rough weather course, Harib and Al Ghaith led the field of 11 boats from the start to totally dominate the 84Nm 15-lap race.
Maintaining their record of appearing on the podium at every race this season by taking second place, the Anglo-Norwegian pairing of Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis were crowned European Champions and extended their overall World Championship lead by 23 points . Coming home in third place after a race long battle with Gjelsten and Curtis and making it a double celebration for the Dubai-based Victory Team, were Felix Serralles and Henry Simon in Victory 5.
Piloting their Lamborghini powered catamaran, Victory 4 Harib and Al Ghaith, completed the course in one hour and 20 mins at an average speed of 116.10km/h and move into second place in the title race. Celebrating his first win in Class 1 in nearly two years, a delighted Khalfan Harib said, " This is a very special win for me as it is my first as a throttleman. I would like to thank my crew for putting in a lot of time and effort with testing and developing the new boat. We had planned to go out and grab the lead right from the start and to try to put some distance between us and the rest of the field. The conditions were very rough and it was hard on both the crew and the engines. But today we had a very good boat."
As Victory 4 disappeared into the distance, the closest battle of the race developed between Championship leaders Spirit of Norway and Victory 5. "Today’s race was very tough," explained runner-up Gjelsten. "We were really worried before the start because we damaged the hull this morning during testing and knew the conditions were going to be hard. It also didn’t help that we ran the whole race without trim tabs, this was a big handicap. Today was about common sense and with the Championship at stake, it was very important for us to get the points."
Despite a tremendous effort to overhaul Spirit of Norway, Victory 5’s throttleman Felix Serralles was happy to settle for third place. "We haven’t run in water like this for a long time, so I was very happy this morning when we went out and tested and found such big waves. It was such good fun. I’m missing Saeed, my normal driver, but Henry is doing a fantastic job. We were expecting the race to be stopped on the 10th lap, but when it wasn’t we knew it was going to be a marathon battle with Spirit of Norway. We were really worn out by the end."
The extreme conditions took their toll on both crew and equipment. Jolly Motor’s, Lamberto Leoni was taken to hospital immediately after the race with suspected minor trauma injury but later discharged himself under medical orders to rest. For the luckless Australians, Bill Barry-Cotter and Keith Hansen, it is now a race against time to repair their damaged boat after smashing into a wave and holing the starboard side. For Britain’s Ken Thorne and Matteo Nicolini in Caesar Marine, a broken steering mount thwarted a brave challenge for a possible podium finish – the pair settling for fifth place.