Victory Team - Incidents

Incidents

In 1995, one of its drivers, the 1994 Class One champion, Hamed Buhaleeba, was killed whilst leading the race when his boat somersaulted and landed upside down during a Class 2 race at Cowes, in the Isle of Wight. His boat hit a wave, flew out of the water, only for it to land upside down and was trapped in the boat. His boat was reached by emergency crews, where he was taken to a hospital in Gosport and was pronounced dead later. Hamed, who was acting as a throttleman for his brother Rashid, who was uninjured. A trophy was named in honour of him which is awarded to the highest placed oversea competitor at the Cowes-Torquay race.

In 1993, during the Class 1 World Championship, held at Ischia, in the Tyrrhenian sea, one of its boat, driven by Saeed Al Tayer and Felix Serralles, in an attempt to overtake their teammates Khalfan Harib and Ed Colyer, went wide and crashed into jury's boat sinking it instantly, instantly killing the boat owner Francesco Rando and a 18-year-old boy who was on the boat, where he died from injuries after being taken to hospital. Four other people and the drivers escaped with minor injuries.

11 December 2009: Dubai (UAE): Pilots Mohammad Al Mehairi from the UAE, and Jean-Marc Sanchez of France, were killed following a racing accident during race one of the Dubai Grand Prix, the final round of the Class 1 World Powerboat Championship. The two pilots, representing the Dubai Victory Team, were involved in a high-speed crash during the early stages of the race at the Dubai International Marine Club, which was subsequently red flagged. Safety personnel attended to both pilots at the scene. They were subsequently airlifted to a local hospital, where all efforts to resuscitate them were in vain. As a mark of respect to both pilots and their families the event organisers cancelled the final days racing.