Team Abu Dhabi crashes out of Powerboat Championship

After being disqualified from fourth place by race officials after Saturday’s Isiklar Turkish Grand Prix for re-passing a turn marker, Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al Tayer and Faleh Al Mansoori had hoped to bounce back strongly in Sunday’s second 16-lap race at the second round of the 2013 UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship at Pendik-Istanbul. After the dramatic incident-filled first race, the Team Abu Dhabi crew were holding fourth position at the start of the second race when they crossed the dirty water behind Fendi Racing 10 and the boat dug in and flipped in a terrifying barrel roll. Neither crewmember was injured in the crash but it capped a disappointing weekend for the team. “It was an unfortunate racing incident and rounded off a disappointing two races for our team in Turkey,” said Tayer. “These things can happen.” The Victory 3 crew of Arif Saif Al Zafeen and Mohammed Al Marri led from pole position and continued to lead after Team Abu Dhabi’s red flag incident. They eventually reached the chequered flag 22.45 seconds in front of second-placed Fendi Racing 10’s Luca Formilli-Fendi and Giovanni Carpitella. Hub Team Australia’s Darren Nicholson and Ross Willaton - winners of the first race on Saturday - finished third overall and Fendi Racing 8’s Alfredo Amato and Miles Jennings climbed through the field to finish fourth. Victory 3 now holds a slender lead in the championship heading to the next round in Italy in October. Disappointed to have been disqualified from Saturday afternoon’s race by event officials for re-passing a turn mark, the Team Abu Dhabi crew needed to refocus on the job in hand and ensure that they scored points in the second of the races on Sunday.  A repaired Victory 3 dominated the morning’s shortened eight-boat practice session with a lap of 2min 37.04sec before attention turned to a second one-hour scoring qualifying session and the second race. Victory 3 claimed pole position with a lap of 2min 51.92sec and Team Abu Dhabi lined up in fourth position for the race behind Victory 3, Fendi Racing 10 and Hub Team Australia. Source: The Gulf Today