Dubai: The Videx pairing of Alfredo Amato and Marco Pennesi will start from pole at Saturday’s Emirates Airline Grand Prix — the fifth and final round of the 2014 UIM Skydive Dubai XCAT World Series — at Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC).
Videx on Friday recorded the fastest lap of 2min 53.79sec to win the Emaar Pole Position run, with Yacht (2:55.36) in second place and T-Bone Station (2:55.57) third to set up what promises to be an engrossing battle on the Mina Seyahi waters.
With the world championship crown already decided in favour of the Dubai-based Fazza pair of Nader Bin Hindi and Arif Al Zafe’in, much of the attention will be on the battle for second place between a handful of boats including Dubai, T-Bone Station, Six, Marine Investment Sud and Yachts Magazine.
Fazza have won all four previous races and so opted to test the newly-developed and more reliable 350hp XCAT Mercury 4-stroke engines this weekend, which means they can’t earn any points.
The battle for second spot in the championship sees Dubai on 789 points, pursued by the three Italian machines of T-Bone Station (620), Six (511) and Marine Investment Sud (487).
“We opted for the right set-up and props after a bit of experimenting on official practice day. We are lucky our gamble has paid off and the boat has been responding so well,” Videx’s Pennesi said.
“We have had a pretty steady season, but we have somehow failed during actual races. So tomorrow [Saturday] will be time to pay back for all the bad luck. Anyway, in order to be the best one needs to be in dire straits and even ready to die.”
T-Bone Station’s Giovanni Carpitella was pleased to be starting in third as they chase home boat Dubai in the overall standings.
“We are happy to do our best here. Some boats are two or three feet longer and our focus at all times is to challenge for second and see what Dubai is up to. We don’t want to push too much and take any unwanted risks, but just go after our goal and finish second,” he said.
“Our engine is better and we are ready to fight for second place. I think we have an advantage as we are more experienced than the Dubai boat.”