Dubai Grand Prix    
Dubai , United Arab Emirates - 18th October 2002

Victory Team
News 2002

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SPIRIT OF NORWAY LOOK DETERMINED FOR TITLE WITH DUBAI GRAND PRIX POLE WIN

Bjorn Rune Gjelsten and Steve Curtis can round off a brilliant season by clinching the 2002 UIM Class 1 World Offshore Powerboat Championship in the Dubai Grand Prix tomorrow (Friday) for their second title triumph in successive weeks.

They were in devastating form in today’s final Pole Position showdown of the season, sponsored by Emirates Airline and Dubai Duty Free, setting the fastest time on the first of three laps, and then sitting out next two runs while their rivals tried in vain to make up the lost ground.

Having already made sure of the Pole Position Championship a week earlier in Qatar , Gjelsten and Curtis eventually won with almost two seconds to spare over the Victory 7 duo of Ali Nasser and Ali Al Qama, who have only a slender chance to block Spirit of Norway’s relentless course towards the UIM Class 1 world crown tomorrow (Friday).

Gjelsten and Curtis took the podium at Dubai International Marine Club tonight to receive their World Championship and Dubai Pole Position trophies from Saif Al Shaffar, president of the UAE Marine Sports Federation.

Things went according to current world championship form on the first lap of today’s Pole Position spectacle, as Spirit of Norway set the fastest time (2:05:32) by just over two seconds from Riviera (2:07:90), the Grand Prix winners in Doha.

Ali Nasser and Ali Al Qama in Victory 7 improved by just over one-and-a-half seconds on lap two to climb above Riviera into second position, but as the wind strengthened, there were no more changes to the leading positions.

Their team-mates, Saeed H. Al-Tayer and Mohammed Al Marri in Victory 1, went all out to  make more headway, but were just over a second slower on lap two and almost three more seconds slower on the last of three laps.

Norwegians Andreas Ugland and Jann Hillestad in Jotun saved their best to last to finish as fifth fasteset, with Italians Kristian Tzanov and Giovanni Carpitella in Damas completing the top six.

The stage is now set for a pulsating grand finale to the 2002 UIM Class 1 Arbank World Offshore Powerboat Championship, with the world title to be decided in tomorrow afternoon’s Dubai Grand Prix.

Having dominated the season to date, with four Grand Prix wins in Germany , Britain , Norway and Turkey , Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Curtis in Spirit of Norway need only a top-seven finish to secure the world crown.

A combination of mechanical problems for the Anglo-Norwegian pairing and a win for

Victory 7 could yet allow Ali Nasser and Ali Al Qama to the deliver the world championship to the Dubai team’s new headquarters, opened earlier this week.

But a second successive win for Australians Bill Barry-Cotter and Peter..McGrath in Riviera , following their success in Qatar last week, will end the argument, installing Curtis as the first man to win the world championship four times.

Spectators will have a superb view as the Dubai Grand Prix roars to life at 3.30pm tomorrow (Friday) at Mina Seyahi, and those enjoying the second day of the “Lifestyles” festival of music, fashion and luxury lifestyle products and services at DIMC will also be able to follow the action on a giant screen.

From the start the boats blast away to the new entrance to Dubai Marina, turning offshore and then returning to within a few hundred metres of the beach opposite Le Royal Meridien Hotel.