Sail-World.com : Victory ready to claim eighth World Crown
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Victory ready to claim eighth World Crown |
The Victory Team will line up in Dubai for the final two races of the season in December with the World title all but wrapped up.
Victory 1’s Mohammed Al Marri and Nadir Bin Hendi hold a 15-point lead over team-mates Abdullah Al Mehairbi and defending World Champion, Jean-Marc Sanchez, but more importantly, have a 33-point advantage over their Qatari rivals, with just 40 points available.
But despite this margin of safety, Victory’s general manager, Gianfranco Venturelli, remains cautious. 'We know we are competitive and reliable, but we still have to finish the job,' he said. 'Never underestimate the opposition.'
The race for the title is now, barring some extraordinary calamity, a two-boat race and the one remaining question is which outfit - Victory 1 or Victory 7 - will lift the Dubai team’s eighth World crown in sixteen years.
Victory’s record is quite remarkable; they won their first world title in their debut season in 1993, took back-to-back titles in 1995 and 1996 and a hat-trick of titles from 1999 to 2001. The next five years saw their great rivals, Spirit of Norway, dominate, but they regained their crown last year and are well and truly on course to add another.
Over the last sixteen years and from 127 starts, Victory has won 63 Grands Prix, finished second 63 times and third 47 times. They have finished first and second 18 times and completed a clean sweep of the podium on no less than eight occasions.
In addition to their current seven World titles, they have won the European Championship five times, the Middle East title twice and have qualified quickest 39 times to win five Pole Position Championships.
VICTORY WORLD CHAMPIONS
1993 K Harib (AE) / E Colyer (US)
1995 S Al Tayer (AE) / F Serralles (PR)
1996 S Al Tayer (AE) / F Serralles (PR)
1999 A Nasser (AE) / R Scism (US)
2000 A Nasser (AE) / K Harib (AE)
2001 M Al Marri (AE) / S Al Tayer (AE)
2007 A Al Zafeen (AE) / JM Sanchez (FR)
http://www.class-1.com/
by Class-1 media Share
7:32 PM Tue 4 Nov 2008 GMT
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