Federico Montanari and GiuseppeSchiano in RG87 Karelpiu were the pick of the V1 line-up, qualifying in pole and taking full advantage to win from World Champions Aaron Chiantar and Dominique Martini in Chaudron, with Siegfried Greve and Udo Goss in Searex Baltec completing the podium, Bernico New Star coming home in fourth. Team Abu Dhabi 6 made the perfect start to their 2015 UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship title challenge finishing first and second overall yesterday in the first of two races held in conjunction with the seventh leg of the Venice-Monte Carlo race in Salerno, Italy.
The American duo of driver Gary Ballough and throttleman John Tomlinson qualified the first of the two Team Abu Dhabi American-built MTi boats in second place, with the Emirati pairing of Majid Al-Mansoori and Rashid Al-Tayer starting the race just behind their team-mates in third after the morning’s qualifying session.
The two MTis never missed a beat in the race and gave the team based out of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC) a superb 1-2 start to the season. ‘This result goes to prove that it was all worth it and the team is on the right track for a really good challenge for the Class 1 title this year,’ said Al-Tayer. ‘We need to keep the momentum going into the second race and try and deliver a 1-2 for Abu Dhabi again.’
Abu Dhabi faced a strong challenge from Italian Giovanni Carpitella and England’s Miles Jennings in T-Bone Station who lined up at the start in pole position and were running in second up to the final lap when an engine cut out dropping them to third.
Swedish rookie Niclas Johansson made his C1 debut alongside Christian Zaborowski in Energima Zabo Racing, the duo qualified in fourth and finished the race in fourth place.
Defending UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Champions, Arif Saif Al-Zafeen and Nadir bin Hendi running a leased Victory-built hull from Mauro D’Alessio found themselves in unfamiliar territory qualifying and finishing down in fifth place.
Specs of the Karelpiu V1 powerboat
Length: 12.80 m
Beam: 2.60 m
Weight: 4850 kg
Engines: 2 x V8 700 Mercury Racing
Cylinders: 8
Builder: Fountain 42 Poker Run
Designer: Fountain
Construction: Composites
Hull: Monohull
