Round 9 – Dubai Duty Free Grand Prix – Dubai, U.A.E. - Preview
NASSER’S MISSION FOR WORLD DOMINATION
* Dubai racer gunning for unprecedented 4th World title in a year*
* Binautica, Isiklar & Jotun all raise their game for final flourish *
* Spirit of Norway may run revolutionary 6-speed sequential gearbox *
Having already won the 1999 European and World Class 1 Championships and 1998/99 World Class 2 title, Victory Team racer Ali Nasser will tomorrow attempt to complete the unique feat of holding four World powerboat titles concurrently, as he prepares to do battle in the last round of the Pole Position Trophy at the Dubai Duty Free Grand Prix.
After leading the way in one of the most dominant seasons of all time, the only obstacle that now stands in the way of Pole Position Championship leaders, Nasser and long-time partner Randy Scism, is their team-mates Saeed Al Tayer and Felix Serralles in Victory 44.
Although the competition is still technically wide open, with Nasser and Scism holding a narrow six point advantage, given the tidal wave of success that Victory 7 is currently riding, few would bet against them being crowned Champions once again.
For his part, Missouri born Scism still has the bit very much between his teeth. "Now we’ve won the Championship the pressure isn’t as bad, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be backing off at all," he said. "If anything, we’ll be going for it even more because we’ve got nothing to lose."
Meanwhile, inspired perhaps by the new benchmark of professionalism set by the Victory Team, developments continued apace among the chasing pack of boats, as all eyes turn towards narrowing the performance gap in time for next season.
Most notably perhaps, Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis in Spirit of Norway will make a late decision whether to run the revolutionary new 6-speed sequential Lamborghini gearbox that they have been testing of late. However, although the state-of-the-art technology has long been the norm in Formula 1 motor racing, the nautical equivalent, which is the result of an increasing need for low-end torque as Class 1 courses become ever tighter, is still something of an unknown quantity.
"Early tests have been very encouraging and it’s definitely the way forward, but we will only decide at the last minute whether we will run them," said a cautious Gjelsten in Dubai. "A few boats have toyed with the new boxes in testing, but anyone who runs them in a race will be something of a guinea pig, and our first priority is to finish the race," he added.
Ugur Isik and Philippe Benhamou in Isiklar have also demonstrated their commitment to the very end, by deploying two new Lamborghini engines, that in testing at least appear to have given the boat a massive leap forward in speed. In a move typical of the inherent camaraderie of the sport, Hyatt’s throttleman and president of the Offshore Teams Association (IOTA) Edoardo Polli, was even offered a turn at the controls so he could give the new team the benefit of his experience.
Vincenzo Polli and Renato Mastropietro in Binautica have also been conducting extensive tests since taking the decision to run gearboxes for only the third time this season, while Andreas Ugland and Jann Hillestad, the Pole Position victors of a week ago, had new power units for the two Dubai races.