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Victory Team to make SBI debut in Clearwater this weekend

John Moore on 26th September 2018

The last time Victory Team raced their UIM Class 1 Offshore hulls was in Abu Dhabi, back in November 2016.

It was to be the final time a UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship was staged and the team took their 15th World Title.

Since the UIM Series collapsed, the Dubai based team’s big catamarans have sat in the UAE without anyone to play with.

Powerboat Racing World reported in March that the Victory Team had come up with a plan for the dormant boats – to compete in John Carbonell’s Super Boat International (SBI) series in the US.

This weekend the ‘Boys in Blue’ will campaign 2 of their former Class 1 boats at the 10th Annual Hooters Clearwater Super Boat National Championship.

Victory’s 2 boat team will be crewed by UAE and USA pilots.

Salem Al Adidi and Gary Ballough will crew the first with Eisa Al Ali and John Tomlinson in the other.

Al Adidi and Al Ali raced with each other and won the 2017 UIM XCAT World Championship for Victory while Ballough and Tomlinson were runners up to Victory in the 2016 Class 1 World Championship, that weekend they were racing for Team Abu Dhabi.

HE Huraiz Bin Huraiz, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Victory Team explained the decision to race in SBI:

Firstly, we need to know where we stand in the tough and demanding world of powerboat racing.
Victory Team have been dominant in Offshore Powerboat Racing, but we felt that we needed to step it up and step out of our comfort zone and see where we stand in a totally different set-up.

Our leadership has always been clear on accepting bigger challenges and we feel that with our participation in the US will give us yet another unique opportunity to shine on a truly world stage.

The racing in Florida is due to get underway at 12.00 pm (GMT-4) on Sunday.

If all goes well for Victory Team, they then expect to compete at the 38th Annual Key West World Championships (November 4 – 11).