Team Abu Dhabi is preparing to get its world powerboat racing season underway with a hectic autumn and winter of international events in both the UIM F1 H20 World Championship and the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship.
The team is relishing the prospect of using a brand new, American-built, 48-foot MTi race boat for the first time in the UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship and this has now been completed and is currently being transported to the Spanish island of Ibiza for its Class 1 racing debut on September 5-7.
Ibiza is the first round of the revised Class 1 racing season and driver Faleh Al-Mansoori and throttleman Rashid Al-Tayer then hope to use Team Abu Dhabi's newly-liveried racing weapon at subsequent rounds of the series in Italy and the U.A.E., where they will be joined by MTi owner and founder and former Class 1 front-runner Randy Scism and his support team.
The Class 1 racing programme is just one string to the ambitious Team Abu Dhabi bow and the team that is based at the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC) is also targeting a late challenge for honours in the prestigious UIM F1 H20 World Championship.
The exciting news that Team Abu Dhabi will be returning to the water comes at the time when the team has also announced a continued two-year agreement with Etihad Airways as the official carrier and sponsor. Team Abu Dhabi runs under the patronage of H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, Adviser to the U.A.E. President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ADIMSC.
Team Abu Dhabi has amassed 29 Grand Prix wins and three drivers' world titles in its 15 years of competition in the UIM F1 H20 World Championship and Gillman and the team are hoping that this success will also spread to the Team U.A.E. line-up that has been entered in the UIM Nations Cup and to the UIM F-4S Championship team.
Rashed Al-Qemzi and Mohamed Al-Mehairbi will represent Team U.A.E. in the UIM Nations Cup in Abu Dhabi in December and Rashed Al-Remaithi will join Al-Mehairbi in the Team Abu Dhabi line-up for the UIM F-4S Championship races for the Eurofin Trophy that run in conjunction with the remaining four rounds of the UIM F1 H20 World Championship.
Source: WAM