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Abu Dhabi claim XCAT Series lead

Weihai - Rashed Al Tayer and Majed Al Mansoori finish third overall in the third race

Team Abu Dhabi stormed to the top of the UIM XCAT World Championship standings after finishing third overall in the third race, held off the coast of Nanhai New District Bay in Weihai (China) on Saturday.
Rashed Al Tayer and Majed Al Mansoori qualified the boat running out of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC) in third position behind Brett Luhrmann and Pal-Virik Nilsen in the Blue Roo and the Victory Team's Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali.
Even though Team Abu Dhabi played their long lap strategy cannily over the early laps on the murky Yellow Sea course, Blue Roo led the race from start-to-finish, the crew opting to take two long laps midway through the race, to reach the chequered flag 60.34 seconds ahead of the Italian-Australian pairing of Giovanni Carpitella and Darren Nicholson in Weihai-China 10.
The Victory Team never recovered from a penalty lap at the start and were, therefore, forced to run three long laps instead of two. The Dubai crew finished seventh and slipped to third in the championship, three points behind Team Abu Dhabi and a single point adrift of the Blue Roo.
The opening race fired into life much later than planned in the original timetable because of tidal conditions. The Blue Roo led from Victory Team and Team Abu Dhabi, but Lady Spain missed the race after crashing on Friday afternoon. Racing was to be staged over a start lap, 13 normal laps and two long laps. The Blue Roo held the advantage but a flying Caccia Engineering made up a lot of ground in poor visibility, as Victory Team dropped to the rear of the field after incurring a penalty lap.
The Blue Roo continued to lead from Team Abu Dhabi, Weihai-China and Caccia Engineering, but the Emirati duo opted for a long lap early on as well and Weihai-China snatched second position and the Victory Team took their long laps. The Blue Roo continued to press ahead, but still had to take two long laps as Team Abu Dhabi took a second long lap as well and, like Victory Team, now had a clean slate to push through the field over the closing tours.
The Blue Roo, Weihai-China and Caccia Engineering held the top three places before their long laps were taken into consideration. The leaders decided to take their long laps on tours seven and eight and the order stabilised with the Blue Roo crew maintaining their advantage from Weihai-China (one long lap to run), Swecat Racing, Team Abu Dhabi, Caccia Engineering, while Victory Team were down in ninth position after their penalty lap.
Weihai-China took their second long lap and Swecat Racing and Team Abu Dhabi moved up to second and third behind the Blue Roo, only for Weihai-China to return in third place. Team Abu Dhabi duly slipped to fourth from a distant Fujairah Team.
The Blue Roo held on to take a maiden victory and push themselves firmly into contention for the XCAT title. Weihai-China moved up to second and a struggling Swecat Racing was also passed by Team Abu Dhabi, who snatched third overall on lap 13. But Weihai-China was under investigation by race officials as the chequered flag fell on a thrilling race.