The sun shimmered brilliantly over the azure waters of Dammam as the Al Sharqiyah Grand Prix kicked off the first race of the Xcat World Championship’s final stretch. Anticipation was high among fans and teams alike, as every twist and turn of this race could prove crucial in determining the season’s ultimate victor.

The race roared to life with Offshore 222 seizing an initial lead. However, it was a short-lived triumph. Much to the dismay of their fans, Offshore 222 was disqualified for jumping the start, a decision that thrust Team GB into the limelight. With precision and power, Team GB harnessed this unexpected opportunity, commanding the lead with each passing lap, while HPI 96 Fujairah and Victory 7 vied fiercely behind them.

Holding a strategic fourth position, SweCat 2, the leading contender of the 2024 World Championship, was steering their course with determination. But in the lightning-fast world of powerboat racing, fortunes can turn in an instant. SweCat 2 soon found themselves embroiled in a high-speed incident, their engine cover shattered amidst the turmoil.

The damage was visible but not deterring. SweCat pushed forward, driven by their championship aspirations. Yet, by lap 11, the race director made a call, disqualifying SweCat out of measures due to the compromised engine cover. The Swedish/Norwegian team was directed back to the pits, their hopes of extending their championship lead dashed.

Refusing to accept defeat so easily, SweCat filed an official protest against the decision. Initially, their arguments bore fruit as the decision was overturned, offering a glimmer of hope to the team. However, this reprieve was short-lived. The officials, after further deliberation, reversed their decision yet again, leaving SweCat with zero points for the race. Their championship lead, once formidable, now teetered at a slim margin of just 7 points above HPI Fujairah.

PRW says :

It is frustrating when rules are applied differently to the teams from the officials. Will poor desitions earlier this year decide the World Championship series? Shouldn’t the rules be the same for all teams? One must trust that the new race director in charge now will enforce a more fair line than his predecessors, who apparently did not know the rules. Or did he ?

The list of questionable decisions historically is extensive in Xcat Worldchampionship, and teams like Team Abu Dhabi, Maritimo and Team 6 have claimed they left the championship for this reason.

The stakes have been set for the championship-deciding final rounds. SweCat, though still leading, will start 8th in the final Saudi Arabian race, a challenging position by any standard. Meanwhile, HPI Fujairah, buoyed by recent events, secured a second starting position, a tactical advantage they intended to exploit fully.

As the Xcat World Championship barrelled towards its December rendezvous in Dubai, the tension is palpable. With only three rounds remaining, the battle for the championship is as fierce as ever. Team GB, set to start off the pole later today, aims to capture their second victory of the year, their confidence riding the waves of recent success.

The Xcat World Championship remained wide open, the water shimmering with the promise of thrilling battles yet to come.

The 222 Offshore Australia team, who finished runners-up in the 2019 Class 1 Championship, have announced plans to return to the race series in the United States next year. The team has been grounded in Australia throughout the pandemic due to international travel restrictions but, with the world slowly opening for business and travel, plans are in place for the 222 catamaran to return to action in 2022.

‘Putting racing aside, it’s been a challenging time in general over the last two years’ said driver Darren Nicholson. ‘It’s great to be making firm plans to return to the US and go racing again, and we’ll be looking to go one better than when we finished second behind the Dubai-based Victory Team in 2019.’

Class 1 racing will kick off next May in Cocoa Beach on Florida’s Space Coast and the 222 Offshore team will head to the US in March to start preparing the boat for a full season of racing.

‘Our gear is always well looked after and before the crew flew back to Australia in 2019 the Mercury Racing 1100 Competition engines were put to bed and stored for the off-season’ explained Nicholson. ‘We were expecting that to last just three months, not two years, so I suspect there will be plenty of work ahead of us.’