Dubai: There will be no respite for teams taking part in the 2017 UIM XCAT World Championship as they get cracking in the third race meeting in as many weekends in the Chinese port of Xiamen in Fujian province, from October 27 to 29.

The inaugural edition with 11 teams in the eight-event calendar organised by the UIM has turned out into a three-way battle with Team Australia’s Blue Roo delivering back-to-back successes with a maximum haul of 70 points from two races last week in Weihai. Aussie Brett Luhrmann and his Norwegian co-pilot Pal Virik Nilsen now go into the third round of the four-round competition with a slim three-point lead over the chasing Victory Team duo of Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali (115 points).

Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al Tayer and Majid Al Mansouri suffered a minor setback in Weihai last Sunday and, despite finishing the second race in fifth position, are in third place overall with 104 points. They were looking for a better result on the Yellow Sea to enable them to extend their slender advantage in the championship standings. But a penalty lap early in the race for a collision with a turn buoy pushed the team off the pedestal and into third.

“Climbing back to the top of the standings is pretty much the main goal of our team this week,” Victory Team’s Salem Al Adidi told Gulf News from Xiamen.

“Midway we ran into a bit of bad luck after we got a mandatory long lap for an infringement [in Race 3] and we lost out on vital points. Hopefully, we will have a perfect set-up this weekend so that we can win both the races in Xiamen and turn for the fourth and final round in Dubai with a good points’ advantage,” he added.

Team Abu Dhabi too were keen to stay abreast of the leaders. “We are halfway through the XCAT races in the new racing championship and have two in Xiamen this weekend and then the title-deciding two races in Dubai in December,” Al Tayer said.

“We are third in the championship behind the Blue Roo and Victory Team, but it’s so very close and exciting. Our team knows that the next two races will determine the strategy for Dubai. It’s a crunch weekend for everyone,” he added.

222 Offshore, crewed by the Italian-Australian duo of Giovanni Carpitella and Darren Nicholson, are 18 points behind Team Abu Dhabi and the best of a chasing pack that includes Fujairah Team’s Italian pairing of Serafino Barlesi and Alessandro Barone and the Swedish duo of Mikael Bengtsson and Erik Stark in their Swecat boat.

In a revised schedule, official practice will be permitted in Xiamen on Friday afternoon, in readiness for pole position qualifying on Saturday morning.

Race 1 of the Xiamen Grand Prix gets under way at 11.30am UAE time on Saturday and Race 2 sparks to life at the same time on Sunday.