Norweigian Bard Eker and Britain's Steve Curtis maintained their perfect record in the separate Pole Position series, taking their sixth consecutive win of the season in Dubai on Thursday to win the 2005 Pole Position Championship title.
Norweigian Bard Eker and Britain’s Steve Curtis maintained their perfect record in the separate Pole Position series, taking their sixth consecutive win of the season in Dubai on Thursday to win the 2005 Pole Position Championship title.
It was a clinical performance by Eker and Curtis who, like Victory 77, decided to use their first lap to warm up the engines before unleashing Spirit of Norway on the second run to set the fastest time of the afternoon, completing the 4.87Nm lap in 2mins 52.57secs at an average speed of 116.93mph/188.15kmh.
“The course is a little different from last year, a bit tighter but we are improving each time we go out and today we had a very good run”, said Bard Eker after lifting his first championship title in Class 1. “We took it easy on the first lap and then pushed hard. We didn’t really pay too much attention to the time just focused on doing the best we could and it worked”.
While the performance underlines Spirit’s position as pre-race favorites for Friday’s Mina Seyahi Grand Prix, only three and a half seconds separated the top five. Jorn Tandberg and Christian Zaborowski continue to impress and produced another strong performance in the Mercury powered Jotun going second quickest, setting their best time of 2mins 53.15secs on their first run with Victory 77 third and Qatar 96, also running the Mercury 1075’s, in fourth.
Bampaolo Montavoci and Domenico Cirilli backed up their impressive showings in practice and have clearly stepped up a gear, producing their best qualifying result of the season with GFN Gibellato fifth quickest, ahead of Negotiator, Victory 7 and Ceramiche Flaminia.
Mina Seyahi Grand Prix – Pole Position results:
1 Spirit of Norway – Eker/Curtis 2:52:57
2 Jotun – Tandberg/Zaborowski 2:53:15
3 Victory 77 – M Al Marri/Sanchez 2:54:82
4 Qatar 96 – Al Thani/Nicolini 2:55:00
5 GFN Gibellato – Montavoci/Cirilli 2:56:17
6 Negotiator – Parsonage/Scism 3:01:29
7 Victory 7 – Hindi/R Al Marri 3:03:86
8 Ceramiche Flaminia – Chillocci/Tzanov 3:14:60
Pole Position Championship standings (after 6 of 7 rounds):
1 Spirit of Norway – Eker/Curtis 120pts – (2005 Pole Position Champions)
2 Qatar 96 – Al Thani/Nicolini 75pts
3 Jotun – Tandberg/Zaborowski 62pts
4 Victory 77 – M Al Marri/Sanchez 46pts
5 Negotiator – Parsonage/Scism 42pts
6 Victory 7 – Hindi/R Al Marri 35pts
7 Qatar 95 – Al Sulaiti/Di Biase 23pts
8 GFN Gibellato – Montavoci/Cirilli 20pts
9 Maritimo – Barry-Cotter/McGrath 14pts (withdrawn)
10 Roscioli Hotels – Giorgi/Polli 8pts
11 Ceramiche Flaminia – Chillocci/Tzanov 6pts
