ABU DHABI - Tuesday, December 1, 2015 - It seems like forever, it's been well over a decade, but as the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC) hosts it's 24th Grand Prix next week on the 10th and 11th of December at the fifth round of the UIM F1H2O World Championship for powerboating, it will once again try to attain two goals; a victory and the respect that goes along with that accomplishment.
The longest running race on the current F1H2O calendar dating back to 1993, is always one of the most eagerly awaited events, highlighted with a circuit that screams "speed" and one that takes no quarter if a driver gets it wrong on the planned six-pin 2.03 kilometer (1.25 mile) course.
Over the years, ten drivers from six various nations have taken the laurels of victory here, but only once, in 2005, did a driver from the home club ever win along the corniche.
Hall-of-Fame driver Scott Gillman from California, who now heads up the rival Emirates Team, was the hero that year and now in 2015 is looking to his drivers, Ahmed Al Hameli and Erik Stark to capture their first victory of the season as well as along the waters just inside the Gulf.
Team Abu Dhabi has a General Manager who knows his way to success in Abu Dhabi. Another Hall-of-Fame driver, Guido Cappellini, leads the way with five victories and is hoping to pass on his knowledge to his pair of talented drivers.
Sitting tied for seventh in the drivers' championship with 19 points on the outside looking in but still with a shot at the title is three-time World Champion Alex Carella who doesn't need a Cappellini lecture as he has had great success in Abu Dhabi winning both in 2011 and again in 2012 when driving for the now disbanded Qatar Team.
"I've had great success here in the past having raced five previous times and reaching the podium in three of those races and with a lot of testing here in the past few weeks, I am confident we can break this "hex" and do it for the "home team" this next week as well," said the Italian.
Meanwhile, his elder teammate and local driver Thani Al Qamzi is still staring down the idea of winning for the first time in his home backyard having finished second back in 2012 as his best result in eight previous starts. "I heard all the talk about not winning here for the team in over a decade, but for me and this years' organization, this isn't a problem, we feel we can play through this and with a little luck still have a shot at the drivers' championship before the season ends in Sharjah on the 18th of December," stated Thani.
Al Qamzi is a single point ahead of his teammate, with 20 for the season, coming off his best performance of the year with a runner-up second place at the most recent Grand Prix of China held in early October in Liuzhou.
While much of the talk is about the two Emirates Team's gearing up for the challenge, up the road and two hours north in Dubai the Victory Team is working overtime preparing a new "Victory" boat for top contender Shaun Torrente as the American from Florida is still very much in the championship hunt in second place with 39 points with two races to go. "The team is truly dedicated to push for excellence and I am truly blessed being associated with a great crew of people as the Victory organization," said Shaun. "Nadir (Bin Hendi) and I have done a ton of testing recently and we want to take matters into our own hands after running other boats that were developed by brilliant designers but outside our organization. We are excited about taking control of our own fate building these race machines.
"We also realize it's a mountain to climb to win this years' title trailing by 16 points, but we are still very much in it and we are pushing to the maximum to make sure we don't make any mistakes to reach our goal as champions of 2015."
Meanwhile, caught in the background of this three team "Emirates struggle" is the defending World Champion Philippe Chiappe and his CTIC China Team that has been precision like as they are carving their way towards another title coming off back-to-back victories in Porto, Portugal and Liuzhou, China and looking once again for back-to-back success in the Emirates as they did a year ago to capture their first title. "We are excited about returning to Abu Dhabi and to defend our race victory from a year ago," stated Philippe. "We have been out preparing now for a few weeks and we realize we can't let up for a minute or else we'll be passed by these other professional organizations who want to steal our glory. We are determined and we'll be ready next week to stay on top."
Close to 20 pilots from over 10 various countries are expected to participate just outside the city complex of the lovely setting of downtown Abu Dhabi beginning with official qualifying on Thursday, the 10th of December at 15:30 local time (11:30 UTC). The following day, the fifth round of the 2015 season with the 24th Grand Prix event on the 11th of December will take place at 15:30 local and (11:30 UTC).
If the driver from Rouen can manage his second victory in two years along the corniche, he'll earn his second straight world title, but if not, he may have to wait to possibly celebrate the following Friday in the season final in Sharjah.
The drama only gets more exciting starting in Abu Dhabi and can be followed live by going to the official website of the UIM F1H2O World Championship tour at www.f1h2o.com. The "live" worldwide television broadcast feed will also be made available as well so you won't miss a lap of all the excitement.
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