Victory promises full throttle

Dubai: Newly-crowned world champion Victory 77 has promised an all-out war when the eighth and final round of the 2007 WPPA Class One World Powerboat Championship is held this week.

With one race still to go this week, the world title has already been handed over to Victory 77 after a gap of five years following their fourth place finish in the Mina Seyahi Grand Prix last week.

Last week's nine points were enough for the Victory 77 duo of Aref Saif Al Zafein and Jean Marc Sanchez to total 127 points and stay out of reach of Qatar 96 and Spirit of Norway.

"There is no pressure, we just want to go out there and prove to everyone that we are worthy to be the world champions," Al Zafein told Gulf News after yesterday's practice.

Last week, Spirit of Norway won the Mina Seyahi Grand with the 20 points helping them to stay in tied second spot with Qatar 96.

During the past two years the final round in Dubai has yielded much of the excitement to the season finale with Spirit of Norway edging the home favourites by a mere two points.

Middle East title

But this year with the title already decided in favour of the men in blue, attention will shift to the fight for the Middle East title.

"We do not have anything to lose. We will go all out and get the 20 points so that we can take the second place in the championship," said Spirit of Norway driver Bjorn Rune Gjelsten.

"This is not the time for strategy. We have to put our performance of last week behind us and target a win and the points so that we can finish off with the Middle East title," added Qatar Team boss Shaikh Hassan Bin Jaber Al Thani.

Their second boat Qatar 95 has been showing late signs of reliability after notching their best ever performance this season of a second place last week.

The Qatar 95 duo of Abdullah Al Sulaiti and Luca Nicolini are in fourth overall with 64 points, a mere two points adrift from fifth placed Victory 7.

The race will get under way at the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) today with a practice session between 10 and 11 am before the Edox Pole Position run at 2.30 pm.