20th April 2010, Dubai. Next weeks UIM Xcat Middle East Championship heat 3 and the following weekends heat 4 have been called off as drivers, race officials and TV production crews are all stuck in Europe as the cloud of volcanic ash originating from Iceland made much of Europe a no-fly zone.
The races will now take place in October and November leading up to the UIM Xcat World Championships, which will take place in November and December. ‘With the uncertainty surrounding travel we decided to err on the side of caution and fairness to all concerned,’ said Sid Bensalah, General Secretary of the WPPA. ‘The airlines are expecting the backlog of passengers to take sometime to clear once the airports open again and this would affect everyone trying to get to the UAE for the races.’
The success of the Xcat Series has so far been measured by the amount and caliber of entrants in to the races. It is by far the biggest and fastest growing class in the powerboat world to date with twenty-one boats competing in the exciting first two rounds, which were both won by the newly formed Extreme Marine team. More teams are working to get their boats up to the standard that the new safety rules dictate so they can enter the Championships the dates of which have yet to be confirmed.