Arendal: Arif Al Zafein and Nader Bin Hendi gave spectators at the BMW Norwegian Grand Prix something to remember with a new Arendal speed record in the Class One Edox Speed Run late on Friday.
The record of 259.86kph - set in 1999 by Victory Team's double World Championship pairing of Saeed Al Tayer and Felix Serralles -will stay in Dubai, with Al Zafein and Bin Hendi covering the 'flying kilometre' in 13.025 seconds, posting the fastest time at 276.39kph in their Victory 1 boat Fazza 3.
The all-Norwegian pairing of Kolbjorn Selmer and Jorn Tandberg in Welmax also eclipsed the record, clocking 273kph, while Qatar 96's Shaikh Hassan Bin Jaber Al Thani and Steve Curtis were third fastest with 253.43kph.
Earlier, during the day home favourite Welmax had set a time well ahead of anything early pacesetters Fazza 3 and Qatar 96 could produce during the official practice session. Last year's Norwegian Grand Prix winner and defending European Champion, Jorn Tandberg, set the quickest time in the final minutes of the opening practice session.
Tandberg and his new driver, Kolbjorn Selmer, blew away the competition in a time of 3mins 14.20secs, a full three seconds faster than their closest rivals and over four seconds quicker than any practice time from last year.
Shaikh Hassan and Steve Curtis, who are looking to break their 'win duck' in Qatar 96, thought they had the fastest time with a lap of 3mins 17.34secs to jump ahead of Fazza 3, but had to settle for the second fastest time. "We are getting there, but we are still finding things out after the modifications we've made. There's room to improve and we need to find more acceleration," said Curtis.
Bin Hendi and Al Zafein were both very relaxed about their feat. "We never look too much into times from the first period of testing. We'll go back to the pits, look over the data and work out how we will set up for practice on Saturday before the Edox Pole Position," said Bin Hendi.
