Dubai: The Caccia Engineering duo of Alfredo Amato and Daniele Martignoni were the surprise package as the Italians climbed into pole position ahead of the first race of the Xiamen Grand Prix — round three of the 2017 UIM XCAT World Championship being held in the Fujian Province, this weekend.
Amato and Martignoni had the best lap of 2 minutes, 50.805 seconds to finish clear of the chasing pack of The Blue Roo, Victory Team and Mipherl Xiamen — who all finished within one-hundredths of a second in second, third and fourth places respectively.
With clear waters before them, Amato and Martignoni powered their boat to a fast time of 2:50.805 in their opening lap, while Brett Luhrmann and Pal Virik Nilsen managed 2:52.043 in The Blue Roo. However, the Aussie-Norwegian duo improved this to 2:51.206 to finish a shade better than Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali’s 2:51.209 in the blue colours of the Victory Team.
Italian Giovanni Carpitella teamed up with Australian Joakim Kumlin to complete the top two rows on the grid with a best lap of 2:51.350 in their new Miphere Xiamen boat (previously called 222 Offshore), leaving the Swecat duo of Mikael Bengtsson and Erik Stark in fifth (2:53.121) and Rashid Al Tayer and Majid Al Mansouri in the Team Abu Dhabi boat (2:54.489) in sixth.
This is the first year that the world governing body UIM is organising a World Series for XCAT boats. As many as 11 teams are in the fray over eight races held at four venues.
Last weekend, Luhrmann and Nilsen turned the series on its head while winning both races of the Weihai Grand Prix to shoot to the top of the overall standings with 118 points.
Victory Team followed up with a second place in the second race to tag the leaders just three points away (115), while Team Abu Dhabi continued their chase of the top two with 104 points.
Carpitella, who has dropped Aussie Darren Nicholson in favour of Joakim Kumlin, are 18 points behind Team Abu Dhabi followed by a chasing pack of 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.
Race one of the Xiamen Grand Prix will get under way at 11.30am UAE time on Saturday followed by the second race at the same time on Sunday. The fourth and final round consisting of two races will be held at the Mina Seyahi waters off the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) from November 30 to December 2.
