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While His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani and Steve Curtis head the Spirit of Qatar Team challenge in their turbine racer, Al-Adaa’am 96, at this week’s 33rd Annual Key West Super Boat World Championships in Florida, two other boat teams will represent the Doha-based team in the three races on November 6th, 8th and 10th. |
Massive attention will almost certainly focus around the new Spirit of Qatar 613 entry. Taking the throttles will be Sheikh Hassan’s former Class 1 teammate Matteo Nicolini and the Italian will be joined by Qatar’s rallying legend and Olympic bronze medal-winning skeet shooter Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah.
The pair tested a second Spirit of Qatar 613 in Doha last week, just a couple of days after
al-Attiyah had returned to Qatar from a high-speed retirement from the Rally de Espana on Spain’s Costa Daurada. The former Class 1 boat that al-Attiyah and Nicolini will race in Key West will be powered by a pair of 1350hp Mercury turbo charged engines.
“Nasser is my ‘wing man’ and he tested with the team last week,” said Sheikh Hassan.
“We all left for the US on Friday and we will have time at the start of the week to test the other race boat in the USA so that Nasser can get used to it. We arrived in Key West today (Sunday).”
The experienced Qatari Ali al-Neama has been racing in the Superboat class in Super Boat International (SBI) all season and he teams up with American racer Billy Moore in Spirit of Qatar 20. They line-up in one of the strongest fields ever assembled in the Superboat class and featuring the likes of the championship-winning Team Stihl and main rivals WHM Motorsports and JD Byrider.
“I think Ali and Billy will make a great team together in Key West,” added Sheikh Hassan. “I hope that the water conditions suit the 20 boat and they can push the competition.”
Staff at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF) have also been flat out preparing for Qatar’s hectic November racing fortnight, with members of the team heading straight back to Doha after the Key West races to support the Doha team at the Qatar Aqua Bike and Qatar UIM F1 H20 races that take place between November 13-23.
“Staff at the QMSF are what I call my Top Guns. They are the best,” added Sheikh Hassan. All the plans are already in place for November. I just hope that we can achieve a top result this week and show everyone around the world that the Qatar Team means business.”
Testing for the first of the three Key West races starts on Tuesday, November 5, with the three sets of three races in the various classes taking place on November 6, 8 and 10.
