Team Abu Dhabi continues its exciting summer of competing in European power boating events by entering two boats in the renowned Double 6 Hours of Augustów – the Necko Endurance race – in northern Poland this weekend (July 9-10).

The race is organised by the Augustowski Klub Sportowy Sparta and has run since 2005. It takes place on the stunning Necko Lake and is a round of the World Endurance Championship running under the auspices of the UIM. There will be two six-hour races in the time schedule for three boat classes – S1, S2 and S3.

Team Abu Dhabi has entered boats 35 and 36 in the S2 class with similar driver line-ups to the ones used at the 24 Hours of Rouen in France. Double UIM F1 H2O world champion Alex Carella, teams up with the Emirati duo of Thani Al-Qamzi and Majed Al-Mansoori and the experienced Italian Tullio Abbate at the helm of Team Abu Dhabi 35 and will be hoping to repeat that Rouen class S2 success.

Rashid Al-Tayer, Mohammed Al-Mehairbi, Rashid Al-Qamzi and Faleh Al-Mansoori line up in an all-Emirati Team Abu Dhabi 36. Al-Qamzi and Al-Mehairbi kept their hand in with racing action on Lake Lugano two weekends ago and finished sixth and 14th overall in a rain-delayed UIM F2 Championship race at the Italian enclave of Campione d’Italia.

“This is another exciting challenge for Team Abu Dhabi and an excellent opportunity to gain more experience in the endurance discipline that will improve fitness and give our drivers even more time in a racing environment,” Salem Al-Romaithi, assistant general manager of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC). “This a famous race with a proud tradition and we are delighted to be here to compete with a strong line-up of drivers that did us so proud at Rouen earlier this summer.”

Carella said: “This is an important race for Team Abu Dhabi because we want to try and win the World Endurance Championship. We were testing with an XCAT last week and we tested boats 35 and 36 last weekend for Poland with all the drivers. Thani and I are also using this for preparations for the next F1 race in Evian. Everything is running perfectly. The team is very close and we all have great spirit to win and that is so important.

“Poland is really good testing for me and good physical and mental preparation when you stay in the boat and try to drive faster and faster for two hours.”

Team Abu Dhabi is sponsored by Etihad Airways and runs under the patronage of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al-Nahyan, advisor to the Head of State and chairman of the board of directors of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC).

Last year, Team Navikart Racing’s French quartet of Sébastien Lemoine, Franck Delambre, Stéphane Lemoine and Oliver Betin fended off the challenge from Touax Neptune Inshore Racing and New Star 1 to win the opening Augustów race in the S2 class. New Star’s Carella and the Russian trio of Konstantin Ustinov and Roman and Dmitriy Vandishev won the second race and clinched overall victory with 31.25 points.

Dubbed as the ‘Venice of the North’, Augustów is a small city in the northeast of Poland on an important link road between Warsaw and neighbouring Lithuania and lies on the Netta River and the Augustów canal. It is a popular resort town and was recognised as a health and spa resort in 1970, largely because of its close proximity to the race-hosting Necko Lake and the Biale and Rospuda lakes in the Podlaskie Province.

Documentation and scrutineering of the race boats takes place on Thursday and Friday, before the opening ceremony takes centre stage in the nearby amphitheatre from 19.00hrs on Friday evening. The first of the two six-hour races starts at 09.00hrs on Saturday morning (July 9th) and finishes at 15.00hrs.

Competitors will be permitted a second training session on the lake on Sunday morning between 09.00hrs and 10.00hrs and race two is scheduled to start at 11.00hrs, finishing at 17.00hrs.