The Victory 3 team of Arif Saif Al-Zafeen and Nadir Bin Hendi claimed their second straight victory at the three-race Union Internationale Motonautique Class 1 World Powerboat Championship on the Abu Dhabi Breakwater on Thursday. Team Abu Dhabi 6’s John Tomlinson and Gary Ballough now face an uphill battle to successfully defend the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club’s 2015 world title in the final race on Friday afternoon.

The second of three Class 1 World Championship races in Abu Dhabi went to the Victory 3 team. Photo courtesy ADIMSC

The American duo couldn’t overcome being edged out of the pole position by a little more than one second by the Victory 3 team, which won Tuesday’s opener in the three-race Class 1 World Championship. Victory 3 led from the pole and pulled away from their rivals in a processional 13-lap race to take the checkered flag by 40 seconds. The American duo in the Team Abu Dhabi 6 MTI finished a comfortable second and Zabo 91’s crew of Italy’s Giovanni Carpitella and England’s Ian Blacker rounded off the podium places.

Aquasport 99’s Nico Huybens and Daniel Cramphorn started in fourth and began to fall off the pace before taking on water after eight laps and retiring from the race. The Team Abu Dhabi 5 team of Rashed Al-Tayer and Majed Al-Mansoori did not start the race after spinning and rolling their MTI during Wednesday’s kilo run event.

Joining the fun on the Abu Dhabi Breakwater was a trio of XCAT World Series catamarans, which are competing in a two-race event to decide a new Abu Dhabi Cup. F1 H2O driver and multiple-time world champion Alex Carella’s partnership with Faleh Al-Mansoori in Team Abu Dhabi 55 paid dividends as the local crew finished ahead of last week’s Abu Dhabi XCAT Grand Prix winners (read the story) Salem Al-Adidi and Eisa Al-Ali, who had technical issues near the finish in Victory 33. Raheeb’s Abdullatif Al-Omani and Ahmed Al-Suwaidi were third in Raheeb 17.

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