Victory return with podium honours in USA

Key West - The two Victory Team boats had created quite a stir in the penultimate race on Friday by snatching the top two positions

Dubai's Victory Team capped a successful trans-Atlantic debut with an overall podium finish as the 38th Annual Key West World Championships concluded in Key West, Florida, in the early hours of Monday.
Moving into the North American powerboating scene for the first time-ever, Victory 33 with Salem Al Adidi and John Tomlinson on board took their third successive podium to conclude their campaign with their first-ever top-3 finish in North America.
Victory Team's second boat with Eisa Al Ali and Steve Curtis on board rolled over and flipped on Turn 1 of the fourth lap to bring a premature end to their American campaign.
The two Victory Team boats had created quite a stir in the penultimate race on Friday by snatching the top two positions to throw the chase for overall honours wide open. But, on Monday it was a totally different situation with front-runners Team CRC and Wake Effects rebounding back in a strong bullish manner.
Starting off the 13-lap race on the challenging Key West circuit, it was Team CRC snatching the early initiative while leading Wake Effects even as Salem Al Adidi and John Tomlinson continued pressing them in their Victory 33. But as the surge for the top honours continued, a host of other boats, fell to mechanical issues and then Steve Curtis and Al Ali joined this growing lot of casualties after flipping their Victory 3 while negotiating a sharp turn on the far side of the course.
Undaunted by the yellow flag, Team CRC and Wake Effects continued running each other close at the top. But in a quick move, Rusty Ron and Jeff Harris in their Wake Effects boat passed Team CRC and never looked back after that as they took the checkered flag to be crowned world champions after finishing with a three-race total of 883 points nipping Team CRC in second place by just half a point, while Victory 33 followed in third overall with 812 points.
"This is the world of powerboat racing. It is tough out there and for us to come here and land with an overall placing is a huge motivation," said Huraiz Bin Huraiz, chairman of Board of Directors at Victory Team after the race.