Dubai: The chairman of the board of directors for Victory is confident the team is capable of landing bigger prizes going into the penultimate round of racing at the 38th Annual Key West World Championships held in Key West, Florida, held in the early hours of Thursday.
The two Victory Team boats were among the main challengers throughout to leader and ultimate winner Wake Effects to land second and third places in the seven-lap race of the Super Boat Unlimited category at Key West.
Thrown into a jumble of a dozen boats at the start, the two Victory Team boats were slow to take off as Wake Effects headed towards a clear lead early in the race. But the Victory Team duo chased down Wake Effects to ultimately finish 20 seconds behind the champion from the USA.
Participating in the Superboat Unlimited category, Salem Al Adidi teamed up with John Tomilson to bring in Victory 33 in second place as Eisa Al Ali and multiple world champion Steve Curtis in Victory 3 came in third to complete the podium standings.
“This is simply such a brilliant performance from us,” Bin Huraiz told Gulf News after the race.
“I never expected such a strong result from our boats. I think we have the necessary experience and the expertise to be even better for the next two races,” he confided.
With a slow start to make up ground, the two Victory Team boats were among the early challengers along with Lucas Oil and Husky Chocolate. With a superior engine power backing them, Wake Effects maintained its lead even as the two Victory Team boats gradually started gaining on the leader.
“I think we have many reasons to feel happy today,” Bin Huraiz said.
The two-boat set-up was not expected to have a smooth going at Key West due to existing rules that allow boats to have as much as 2,000hp on each of its two engines. This rule handed out a distinct disadvantage to the Victory Team’s Lamborghini V12s that have an existing capacity of only 1,100hp per engine.
“We were not only competitive. We were consistent throughout the seven laps of the race. This shows stability in the set-up and the hard work put in by our dedicated Victory Team crew,” he complimented.
The racecourse consisted of a challenging 4.5 mile lap running through Key West Harbour and at times even touching high speeds of more than 225kph due to the smooth water on the outside.
The next racing day for all four categories in the championships is November 9 with the Superboat Unlimited class going through its seven-lap contest from 11.30pm UAE time. November 11 will be the third and final day for the championships.
