Italian Grand Prix
Trieste , Italy - 15 June Saturday 2002    

VICTORY TEAM AIM TO PLEASE IN TRIESTE

The city of Trieste will this weekend hold the first heat in the UIM 2002 World Offshore Championship race series when competitors power off today at 14:30 (Saturday the 15^th June) with the pole position.

Held for the third consecutive year in the Italian city, the venue is considered a firm favorite by both the competitors and the followers of offshore. With the deafening roar of the engines signaling the preparations for the race, the excitement and enthusiasm felt in Trieste is tangible and you can understand why this venue has come to be regarded as one of the best organized in the offshore powerboat circuit. 

Today’s pole position will act as the qualifier for the line up in tomorrow’s race and with this year’s medley of international competitors, fans are fortunate that they can expect a new line up that will certainly add extra spice to the existing competition.

Representing Dubai are current World Champions, Victory Team. This year Saeed H. Al- Tayer and Mohammed Al Marri will be piloting Victory 1 and in the cockpit of Victory 7 will be last year’s runners up, Ali Nasser and Ali Al Qama.

Already hat trick Champions, Victory Team will be aiming to smash UIM history records with a forth-consecutive World Championship title in 2002. The finale to the 2001 Class One UIM Championship last year will long be remembered as one of the fiercest and best-raced endings when the two blue boats fought to secure the championship title. With such an exhibition of pure adrenalin-fighting rivalry, fans will be expecting an encore of the performance and Victory Team aim to comply with a season of no punches pulled and another year of power-boating perfection. “We are looking forward to another season with our fellow competitors, both old and new.” said Mohammed Al Marri, driver for Victory 1 and current World Champion. “Testing over the winter has shown our boats to be extremely reliable and we are hoping for a good run this weekend.” commenting on the competition. “The start to a season is always an interesting race as you don’t know what the other teams have up their sleeves when it comes to improvements over the winter months. I imagine that the competition is going to be very fierce.  But we have no intention of relinquishing the trophy at the end of the season!” laughs Al Marri.

Commenting on pre-pole tests, Ali Nasser driver for Victory 7 said. “The boat ran beautifully out there today (yesterday) and with such smooth conditions we are expecting a very quick run for tomorrow’s pole position.”  

Whether Victory Team can go on and lift the opening race of the season will depend not only on their form, but also on the reliability and performance of their main rivals and it seems that everybody is out to knock them from their hard earned throne.

 Hard on their blue heels will be their nemesis of old, Spirit of Norway, with last years Time Trial champions Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis. “Victory Team are a very professional, expert team and we are expecting them to be one of the boats at the front when the green flag is waved.” said Bjorn Gjelsten “We have spent the last few months improving and testing our boat in Norway. However you cannot really compare the testing in Norway as there is such a difference in temperature, but we hope to show a big improvement.” 

Back on the scene after a long absence will be the popular Australian Team Riviera with Bill Barry-Cotter at the wheel and Paul Lingard at the throttles. Their Tencara MTU diesel engined 43 foot catamaran last competed in the 2000 UIM circuit in Turkey when an unfortunate crash saw them unable to complete the series. Following extensive repair the boat is now back and proof shows it to be faster and fitter and ready to take on the big guns of offshore again. “We basically had to rebuild the boat from new all the way from the cockpit to the back. We have improved a lot on the original design.” said Barry-Cotter.  “I guess you can now say that the boat is half Tencarra and half Riveira.” Laughs Barry-Cotter. Pre-race preparations have seen the white boat radically restructured to make it not only lighter and faster but also to ensure better handling. With runs of up to 150 mph on Australian waters, the Riviera team are expected to give a good run for the championship trophy.

Another new entry will be the pairing of Kjell Rokke and American Jim Dyke in their American built Skater boat, Reverie. This Norwegian-American pairing have a long racing history together and are expected to pose a treat to the top gunners in the championship. “We are happy to be back in what we consider to be the premier championship race series in offshore.” said throttleman Dyke. “We have just raced the boat in the States where it ran exceptionally well and we look forward to a good years racing.”

Also treated to extensive pre-race adjustments is the yellow boat Damas with Kristian Tzanov of Bulgaria and Giovanni Carpitella from Italy in the cockpit. If the boat runs as good as it looks, Damas may well prove a major contender for the 2002 title at the end of the year. “We have made a lot of adjustments to the boat over the last few months.” said Tzanov. “Basically, we have modified the back of the boat to give increased lift in the water. We have also worked on the shape of the hull to prevent extra drag.” With a new support vehicle in tow and a larger hospitality area, Damas is certainly looking good.

Another favorite of offshore is the unmistakable cigar smoking figure of Italian Edoardo Polli. Running an ex-Victory Team boat, Highlander, Polli is hopeful for a good performance in this year’s series following a crash last year that saw his title hopes thwarted. “We have done very few adjustments on the boat and only a few modifications on the engines.” said Polli. “We were missing a lot of acceleration coming out of the turns last year which we have improved on a little.” As usual, Polli aims to throttle and drive on his own, though still carrying the mandatory ‘extra passenger’ for safety reasons.

Today’s pole position will provide a taste of things to come for tomorrows race and this weeks perfect weather conditions with calm waters may well have the boats finishing well within the appointed time limit of one hour.