Norway Norwegians: Jorn Tandberg and Christian Zaborowski delighted a home crowd to scoop the spoils at the Norwegian Grand Prix, the third race in the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship series, here yesterday.
Driving Jotun, a 40-foot catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing 1075 SCi engine packages, Tandberg and Zaborowski upstaged the big names in front of an estimated 200,000 spectators.
Spirit of Norway pilots Bjorn Gjlesten and Steve Curtis could not catch up with them and had to settle for second place, while Victory 77's Mohammad Al Merri and Jean Marc Sanchez finished third.
Ten of the fastest powerboat in the world featured in a dramatic duel over a distance of 94 nautical miles.
However, Spirit of Norway kept the overall series lead with 68 points.
Dubai-based Victory 77's Al Merri and Sanchez are placed fourth overall.
"We are of course pleased as third is still a good result. However, we were aiming for something better this week," said driver Al Merri.
Congratulating Jotun on their win, Al Merri commented: "This year is definitely one of the hardest to predict who your biggest competition is out there. It's changing from race to race.
"Jotun had an amazing race today and are to be congratulated. I believe their fastest run was 4 minutes 18 seconds - that's 5 seconds faster then the second place finishers."
Qatar's Shaikh Hassan Al Thani and Mateo Nicolini finished fourth in the race, despite suffering more then their fair share of problems.
"From the beginning we had problems. After the start, we had to slow down into the turns as the steering was excessively stiff," said Al Thani.
Dubai's Nadir Bin Hendi and Ahmad Al Suwaidi in Victory 7 showed that they had the staying power with a 5th place finish for their first outing on flat water in their 42 foot catamaran.
