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efending champion Yousef Al
Abdulrazzaq knows he will face
stiff opposition in Italy and
throughout the year from a
raft of riders from 12 countries
already signed up for this season
who will be queuing up to try to
wrestle the Runabout GP1 world
title from his grasp.
The
rider
from
Kuwait
successfully defended his crown
last season racking up six race and
three Grand Prix wins to take his world championship tally to three
and earn himself a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Leading the campaign to try dethrone himwill be last year’s runner-up
from Great Britain, James Bushell, who impressed on his UIM-ABP
tour debut, taking pole position and a podium finish in his first outing,
a podium on his second start then two race wins to lift the GP title in
Shanghai .
Sweden’s Lars Akerblom is another who is more than capable of
running the champion close, has blistering pace is a provenwinner and
finished third overall last year for the second time in just three years
of UIM-ABP tour action.
Another to make his mark in 2016 was young Danish rider Marcus
Jorgensen, winning both races on his debut and finishing second
overall at the next GP before the ‘wheels’ spectacularly came off and
derailed his title challenge.
One man looking to break his world title duck in seven seasons of
campaigning is Jeremy Perez. The Frenchman has been so close on
numerous occasions, finishing runner-up in 2014 and claiming third
overall twice. And despite topping the prestigious UIM-ABP World
Ranking since its introduction in 2013 and winning four European
titles on the bounce, the world title has so far eluded him.
There is strength in depth in Runabout and a host of podium finishers
all capable on their day of mixing it at the front, Christophe Agostinho,
Andrzej Wisniewski and Johan Johansson as well as five newcomers
all looking to make a name for themselves; Burak Erverdi, Guy
Greenland, Carl Lampe, James Masterton and Anton Pankratov.
D
RIDERS QUEUING UP
TO CHALLENGE
ABDULRAZZAQ
IN RUNABOUT GP1
26
n° 2 June | 2017