Tuesday, January 30:  The Dubai-based Victory Team has retained the services of Swedish racer Erik Stark and local Emirati driver Ahmad Al-Fahim for the 2024 UIM F1H2O World Championship.

Stark returned to the UIM F1H2O World Championship with the Victory Team at the start of the 2023 season after being absent from the series since the first race of 2021. He has taken four career race wins, four second places, four thirds and 12 podiums and finished as runner-up to Jonas Andersson in 2023. Last year, he earned a third-place finish in Indonesia, fourth in China, a pair of fifths in France and Sardinia and the runner-up spot in Sharjah.

Al-Fahim made his F1H2O racing debut with the Victory Team at last year’s Kopiko Grand Prix of Indonesia on Lake Toba and collected his first championship point for finishing 10th. A pre-race accident meant the UAE driver missed the Grand Prix of Zhengzhou, China, but he finished ninth in France. An accident in the second of the sprint races in Sharjah saw him miss the final round of the 2023 World Championship after a non-finish in Sardinia.

That sprint race collision with former three-time World Champion Shaun Torrente earned the Emirati a one-race red card suspension and he will miss the opening race of the year on spectacular Lake Toba on February 23rd-25th. The Victory Team will only enter one boat in northern Sumatra with no replacement planned for Al-Fahim.