By Sports Reporter/Doha
The Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF) is making its final preparations for the largest power boat racing festival ever to be staged in the Middle East.
Under the presidency of Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani, the QMSF has joined forces with Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix (OPGP) to run the 2015 Qatar Cup in Doha Bay on February 3-7.
Months of hard work and planning by officials in Qatar and the United States of America have now come to fruition and race craft from the USA have already safely arrived in Qatar and will be joined by boats from Turkey, Australasia and the Middle East to take part in a series of races and qualifying sessions over four days next week.
Topping the field are the flag ship race boats in the SuperCat and SuperVee classes, but they will be joined on the Doha Bay course by racers entered in the C1, C2, SuperCat Lite and C225 classes. There will also be a Pro Marathon class race for local competitors next Friday.
Spirit of Qatar 20 tops the list of entrants in the SuperCat class. Local driver Ali al-Neama and American throttle man Billy Moore have been competing in Super Boat International (SBI) for the last two years in the USA, but their MTi has returned to Qatar and they will line up alongside the likes of Randy Sweers’s Racing for Cancer MTi and Ron Roman’s Motley Crew Skater.
Other boats to make the trip across the Atlantic Ocean in the class include Peppers, Pro Floors Racing and Persu Cat Racing.
An impressive list of SuperCar Lite boats were on the ship that arrived in Doha on January 17 and include The Hulk, Smart Marine and Gary Ballough’s Doug Wright-built BG Racing. Qatar’s XCat star Mohamed al-Nasser and two race boats from Dubai and Abu Dhabi are also on the provisional list of entries.
Billy Glueck’s Twisted Metal Fountain and Dan Kleitz’s Outerlimits 43 top the SuperVee class before official registration and technical inspections get underway on Tuesday, February 3rd.
“One of our visions at the QMSF was to stage an event of this nature and to attract some of the finest racers from all over the world to come here and take part,” said His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani.
“We have achieved that in a short space of time. Through the hard work of every member of my team in Qatar and the efforts from the staff at OPGP it has been possible to stage the Qatar Cup. On behalf of everyone at the QMSF, I take this opportunity to welcome our overseas visitors, media, television personnel, team members and competitors to what we hope will be four days of safe and spectacular racing on Doha Bay.”
Timetable of events
Tuesday, February 3: 09.00 - 17.00 Technical inspections and registration
Wednesday, February 4: 09.00 – 10.00 Inshore time testing (C1 and C2)
10.00 - 11.00 Offshore time testing (SuperCat Lite)
11.00 – 12.00 Offshore time testing (SuperVee and SuperCat)
13.00 - 14.00 Inshore time testing and pole position (C225)
14.00 - 15.00 Offshore pole position (SuperCat Lite)
15.00 – 16.00 Offshore pole position (SuperVee and SuperCat)
Thursday, February 5:
09.00 - 09.45 Inshore race 1 (C2)
10.00 – 10.45 Inshore race 1 (C1)
11.00 - 11.45 Inshore race 1 (C225)
15.00 - 15.45 Offshore race 1 (SuperCat Lite)
16.00 – 16.45 Offshore race 1 (SuperVee and SuperCat)
Friday, February 6: 13.00 - 13.30 Practice Pro Marathon
13.45 - 14.15 Offshore race 1 (SuperCat Lite)
14.30 – 15.30 Inshore testing
Saturday, February 7: 09.00 - 09.45 Inshore race 2 (C2)
10.00 – 10.45 Inshore race 2 (C1) 11.00 - 11.45 Inshore race 2 (C225)
14.30 - 15.15 Offshore race 2 (SuperCat Lite)
15.30 – 16.15 Offshore race 2 (SuperVee and SuperCat)
16.45 Awards ceremony
