By Sports Reporter/Doha


Dubai’s Victory S-3, Racing for Cancer and Outerlimits claimed victories in the SuperCar Lite, SuperCat and SuperVee categories in their second races at the inaugural UIM Qatar Cup in Doha Bay yesterday.
 Victory S-3’s Arif Saif al-Zafeen and Nadir bin Hendi were the class of the SuperCat Lite field and reached the chequered flag 9.4 seconds in front of Robert Nunziato and Dan Lawrence in The Hulk. Team Abu Dhabi’s Faleh al-Mansoori and Rashed al-Tayer were a further 40 seconds adrift and rounded off the podium places. Mohamed and Nasser al-Nasser finished fifth in Spirit of Qatar 94.
The Pro Floors Racing crew of Wayne Valder and Chris Hanley looked likely to win a thrilling SuperCat race after leading from lap eight to lap 11. A fierce battle waged between Pro Floors Racing, long-time leaders Motley Crew and Racing for Cancer and the Kiwis were deprived of the win after being overtaken by Racing for Cancer’s Jay Cooke and Randy Sweers on lap 12. Motley Crew later retired.
The Kiwis eventually finished 17 seconds behind their American rivals. Spirit of Qatar 20’s Ali al-Neama and Billy Moore led on lap one before slipping down to fifth and then climbing back to third.  
Joe Sgro and Steve Curtis were never troubled on their way to a comfortable second successive success in the SuperVee category, once Twisted Metal gave up the ghost. They stopped on the last lap, although they had been ahead of four of their SuperCat rivals before failing to reach the chequered flag.
 SuperCat Lite – race two
 Al-Zafeen and Bin Hendi led from the start of the 12-lap SuperCat Lite race and had already edged into a four-second lead over The Hulk by the end of lap one. Both LA Marine and Smart Marine were sidelined, as The Hulk and Team Abu Dhabi gave chase over the subsequent laps.
 By lap six, Victory’s advantage over Robert Nunziato and Dan Lawrence in The Hulk was a constant five seconds, with Team Abu Dhabi’s Falah al-Mansoori and Rashid al-Tayer in third, Wicked Performance Marine in fourth and Peters & May heading Spirit of Qatar 94 in fifth.
 Al-Zafeen and bin Hendi continued to apply the pressure at the head of the field, as the S-3 boat and The Hulk began to edge away from Team Abu Dhabi. Wicked Performance Marine moved well clear of Spirit of Qatar, although Mohammed Al-Nasser managed to pass Peters& May on lap eight and claim fifth place – a position they held to the chequered flag.
 SuperVee and SuperCat – race two
 Six SuperCat and two SuperVee boats lined up at the start of the 14-lap race, with the crews of Spirit of Qatar 20 and Outerlimits hoping for a second successive win on Doha Bay.
Al-Neama and Moore made a superb start for the host nation and held a one-second advantage over Jay Cooke and Randy Sweers in Racing for Cancer after one lap. SuperVee class leaders Joe Sgro and Steve Curtis were third in Outerlimits.
But Al-Neama’s luck ran out on the next lap and the Qatar boat slipped to fifth, as Motley Crew took up the running from the Kiwi crew of Wayne Valder and Chris Hanley in Pro Floors Racing. They were overtaken by Peppers/Peters & May Racing, as Motley Crew entered the fourth lap of a fascinating contest with a 3.6-second lead.
As Pro Floors regained second from Peters & May, Spirit of Qatar slipped behind Outerlimits, but remained well clear of Paul Boudreaux and Jay Price in Thordon.
By lap seven, there was a mere seven-tenths of a second between Motley Crew and Pro Floors Racing, with Peters& May in third. But the race was far from over and Pro Floors moved in front, as a retiring Motley Crew and Peters & May fell behind Racing for Cancer over the closing stages.
EFE Project qualified on pole position for the Qatar round of the UIM World Offshore 225 Championship and provisionally claimed maximum points for winning the race as well. The boat finished clear of the second-placed Spirit of Qatar 18 boat, which also claimed points for second position at the race meeting after qualifying in seventh place. Final results were delayed until UIM officials had carried out eligibility checks on the ECU units in the boats.
The UIM Qatar Cup was organised by the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF) in conjunction with Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix (OPGP).
 “I would like to extend a big thanks to everyone at OPGP, the QMSF and all our visiting guests who made the inaugural UIM Qatar Cup such a successful event,” said Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani, president of the QMSF. “We were blessed with exciting and close competition and strong fields in all the regional and international racing categories.”   Six boats again contested the second 11-lap C2 race on the Inshore course and the leading protagonists from the opening race swapped positions on this occasion, with Kuwait’s Ahmed Fouad Abdul getting the better of race one winner and fellow countryman Ahmed Sulaiman al-Fassam. Qatar’s Rashid al-Muhannadi rounded off the podium places in third.
A similar scenario unfolded in the nine-lap C1 contest with race one winner Mohamed Turki Jumaa of Kuwait finishing second on this occasion to race one runner-up Jassim Abdullah al-Buanain of Qatar. Kuwait’s Khalad Ali Ayadeh was third and fellow Kuwaiti Abdullah Youssef Mohammed was fourth. Three of the 10 starters failed to finish.