Monday, Mar 18, 2013
Dubai: The World Professional Powerboat Association (WPPA) has come up with a new prize money structure during this weekend’s third heat of the 2013 UIM X-CAT World Powerboat Series, under which there is something in it for everybody.
There will now be a prize fund for all the 14 boats involved in the championship with a minimum start-up prize of $6,000 (Dh22,000) per race. Boats finishing on the podium will automatically win a bigger chunk while there will be a separate break-up of the total funds for winners of the Speed Cat Run.
“The idea is to make powerboat racing affordable and the ones to benefit most from this arrangement will be the lower budget teams in the championship,” explained Sid Bensalah, General Secretary, WPPA. The third round of the 2013 UIM X-CAT World Powerboat Series will be held at the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) on March 21 to 23, after which boats will then head to Abu Dhabi for a possible fourth round before heading off on their international assignments.
The Fazza duo of Mohammad Al Marri and Arif Al Zafein have been dominant in the first two heats of the championships to sit pretty at the top of the table with 800 points. Last year’s runners-up Mouawad, with Omar Danial and Gary Ballough have been the early challengers with two second place finishes for 600 points, while the Qatar Team of Mohammad Al Nasser and Hamad Jasim Zayed is in third overall with 352 points.
Fazza has also been in good nick in the Speed Cat Run races after two top finishes to bag 20 points, leaving stablemate Victory Team in second with 14 points and the Qatar Team and Spirit of Dubai in joint third with ten points each.
As many as 12 boats have already been confirmed for this weekend’s event and crew from the teams have already started arriving in Dubai. The mandatory briefing for drivers followed by a meeting of team owners will be held at the DIMC on March 21.
The following day, the official practice will be from 9.30 to 11am followed by the Speed Cat run from 3.30 to 4.30pm. On Saturday, the Pole Position run will be decided between 10 to 11:30am and the Dubai Grand Prix will be flagged off at 3:30pm.
By Alaric Gomes Senior Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
