Tom Barry-Cotter and Ross Willaton in Maritimo won the 2019 XCAT Racing World Championship in Dubai today.

The Aussie pairing took a fine race win to seal the title, the defending champions in Abu Dhabi #4, Shaun Torrente and Faleh Al Mansoori, were forced to take a one lap penalty after missing a bouy, while leading the race and that was the end of their championship challenge.

Barry-Cotter said after:

It wasn’t an easy race as we had no intercom, but we’re really happy and want to dedicate this to the 300 people that work at Maritimo back home.

The Dubai Police crew of Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir Bin Hendi took third position ahead of Torrente and Al Mansoori whose fourth place in Abu Dhabi 4 following their race success 24 hours earlier gave them runners up spot in the championship.

After a spectacular start, Abu Dhabi 4 clawed out a three-seconds lead over Maritimo before being dropped back by the penalty lap, with the pressure from Barry-Cotter and Ross Willaton forcing a crucial misjudgement.

Torrente said:

They were quick and we were pushing and I think we just pushed a little harder than we could without making mistakes.

We missed a buoy and the race committee was quick about it, giving us a long lap penalty

So we just dealt with that and we pushed as hard as we could without making any more mistakes.

We still had to keep second place in the championship in mind.

That was not our goal so we fell short this year, but myself, Saleh and the rest of the team won’t stop until we get the title back.

The American will barely have time to catch his breath ahead of an enthralling last week of the season in the UAE which will see Team Abu Dhabi aiming to collect another four world titles to add to the UIM F2 and endurance championships already won.

Torrente heads from Dubai to Sharjah in a commanding position to retain the UIM F1H2O drivers’ crown, as well as the team title with Thani Al Qemzi.

Meanwhile, Rashed Al Tayer switches from powerboats with a fighting chance to claim a first world aquabikes crown in Runabout GP1, as Rashid Al Mulla bids to clinch a second successive world freestyle title with a tenth straight Grand Prix victory.

Dubai Grand Prix Race 2

1. Maritimo (AUS) Tom Barry-Cotter / Ross Willaton 43.40.42

2. Abu Dhabi 5 (UAE) Rashed Al Tayer and Majed Al Mansoori 44.15.27

3. Dubai Police (UAE) Arif Al Zaffain / Nadir Bin Hendi 44.22.60

4. Abu Dhabi 4 (UAE) Shaun Torrente / Faleh Al Mansoori 44.24.30

5. 222 Offshore (IT/AUS) Giovanni Carpitella / Darren Nicholson 44.55.34

6. HPI Racing Team (IT) Rosario Schiano Di Cola / Guiseppe Schiano Di Cola 45.02.89

7. Victory Team (UAE) Salem Al Adidi / Eisa Al Ali 45.43.81

8. Kuwait (KWT) Abdullatif Al Omani / Moustafa Al Dashti 46.15.64

9. De Mitri (IT) Roberto Lo Piano / Marco Di Cosmo 44.04.30 + 1 lap

10. Videx (IT) Alfredo Amato / Saul Bubacco 44.34.48 + 1 lap

2019 XCAT World Championship

1. Maritimo 202 points

2. Abu Dhabi 4 193 points

3. Dubai Police 191 points

4. Abu Dhabi 5 169 points

5. 222 Offshore 107 points

6. HPI Racing Team 94 points