The Doha Bay will host the Oryx Cup UIM World Championship. The three-day championship begins today.
DOHA: This weekend’s Oryx Cup UIM World Championship race on Doha Bay will decide the outcome of the H1 Unlimited National High Points Championship and great rivals Steve David, David Villwock and Jimmy Shane will go head-to-head to decide the 2012 Air National Guard H1 Teams’ and Drivers’ titles.
QMSF-backed Villwock began the season with back-to-back wins and looked set to take the series by storm in U-1 Spirit of Qatar, but Florida’s Steve David hit back in the latter part of the year and arrives in Qatar with a 652-point lead in the National High Points standings at the helm of U-6 Oh Boy! Oberto.
Both drivers took two race wins apiece in 2012, but David’s wins in Seattle and San Diego have given him a commanding cushion to take to the Doha Bay heats and Oryx Cup race being staged by the Qatar Marine Sports Federation this weekend under the presidency of Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al Thani.
“All of us on team Oberto are looking forward to this weekend and regaining U-1 and winning the Oryx Cup UIM World Championship,” said David.
“We are fully aware that our rivals have the same goal as well. I’m thinking that this may be the most competitive event of the entire season. On the table we have the team National Championship, the Driver Championship and the World Championship!”
With 400 points available to the winner in each of the three heats that precede Saturday afternoon’s Oryx Cup UIM World Championship race, Villwock is aware that he needs to make a good start in the first of the heats today.
The Washington State driver knows that he has to shave a few hundred points off David’s advantage before the meat of the racing takes place on Saturday.
Jimmy Shane also enjoyed a terrific 2012 season in U-5 Graham Trucking and achieved a stunning win at the Colombia Cup in Tri-Cities to storm into third place in the National High Points standings.
He trails Villwock by just 172 points and could well be the spanner in the works for the leading two in a Qatar race that has seen three different winners since its inception in 2009.
Defending Oryx Cup champion Scott Liddycoat will not be in Qatar this weekend. His team is repairing damage to U-88 Degree Man and has turned to driver Brian Perkins to carry the number 88 and score points in Qatar at the helm of U-88 Snoqualmie Casino.
J Michael Kelly won the inaugural Oryx Cup in 2009 and he will be aiming to finish a mixed season on a high in U-37 Miss Beacon Plumbing. Other drivers keen to impress in Doha Bay - where inclement weather conditions have been forecast for the weekend - include Jon Zimmerman in U-9 Jones Racing and veterans Kip Brown and Mark Evans in U-17 Miss Red Dot and U-57 Formulaboats.com. Brown has now recovered from a broken leg sustained in the middle of a disappointing season by his standards, while Evans makes his first trip to Doha after becoming co-owner of the U-57 boat with brother Mitch.
Ryan Mallow will drive the U-100 Fox Plumbing boat and rookie Tom Thompson will take to the water in U-11 Miss Peters & May – the boat that featured in a successful European speed record on Coniston Water in England’s Lake District in November 2012.
“We are very excited to be here in Qatar for the fourth annual Oryx Cup,” enthused H1 Unlimited chairman Sam Cole.
“Then we will stay in Doha to start the 2013 season in February and crown the 2013 UIM World Champion next month.”
The QMSF has installed a grandstand at the side of the course that can seat around 300 spectators, according to event co-ordinator Mona Nasser.
The Peninsula
