Aoki Racing Team triumphs in jam packed Dubrovnik E1 electric speedboat race

In an exciting weekend of the UIM E1 World Championship electric speedboat racing series, the team backed by international superstar DJ Steve Aoki overcame penalties in both final races to earn a tense second win of 2025 and leap to the top of the championship standings.

First time E1 host city Dubrovnik put on a majestic spectacle as the 21st century electric hydroplaning boats zipped around the turquoise waters of the Adriatic against the backdrop of the city’s impressive medieval walls. Croatia’s Minister of Tourism and Sport, Tonči Glavina, recently outlined the ambition of establishing the country as a global destination for sustainable sport and the E1 was a great debut showcase.

See Plugboats coverage of all races in the E1 Series 2025 Championship:
Jeddah  Doha  Maggiore  Monaco  Lagos Miami

Before we get to the races and the results, here’s a quick rundown on the rules of the E1 Series> (Or, you can click »» here to jump right to the race coverage.)

Rules of E1 Series

Teams

There are 9 teams, each made up of a female and male pilot, but this is not constructed as a female event and a male event, the pilots alternate throughout the event, with their results and times combined to decide the pole positions, winners of each leg, final standings and championship points.

The teams are owned by global stars of sports, entertainment and business like DJ Aoki, tennis legend Rafa Nadal, NFL GOAT Tom Brady, actor Will Smith, singer/producer Mark Anthony and Brazilian entrepreneur Marcelo Claure.

The events take place over two days. Friday is made up of time trials followed by two Qualifying Races. Saturday has four Group Races, one Race Off, one Place Race and two Finals Races.

Friday

Time Trials
In the Time Trials, the teams are split into a group of 5 and a group of 4. The male or female pilot in each group has three timed laps, followed by their opposite sex teammate taking another three timed laps.

Qualifying Races
The best times of each pilot are added to determine the team results 1-9 with the teams finishing 6-7-8-9 going into Qualifying Race 1 and the teams finishing 1-2-3-4 going into Qualifying Race 2.

The Qualifying Races consist of five laps and the results determine the pole positions for Saturday’s Group Races.

Saturday


Group Races
The teams finishing 6-7-8-9 coming out of the Qualifying Races start off the first Group Race with Team 6 having the pole position. The second race has Team 1 with pole position facing off against 2, 3, and 4. THEN, the races are done again with the opposite sex teammates. (Four Group Races in all). Each race is 6 laps and has to include 1 long lap and 1 short lap (see ‘Laps’ below).

The teams with the fastest times in each of the Groups get a bye into the Finals held later in the day. The teams with the slowest times in each of the Groups go into the Place Race.

Race Off

To determine the other 3 contestants in the Finals and the other 2 contestants in the Place Race, there is a Race Off between the 2-3 finishers of Group 1 and the 2-3-4 finishers of Group 2.

The three top finishers of the Race Off go to the finals and the two bottom place finishers go to the Place Race. (NOTE: The Race Off and the Place Race are the only two events where both sexes don’t compete, there is just one race.)

Finals Races
The Finals has two races with the two winners of the Group Races having pole position 1 and 2 and the other positions set according to results of the Race Off.

There are a couple of twists!

Laps

There is not just one lap length, but three: Short (1150 m / 62 Nm / .71 mi), ‘Normal’ (1469 m / .8 Nm / .91 mi) and Long (1687 m / .91 Nm / 1.0 mi).

The Time Trials are 1 Normal lap. The Qualifying Races are 6 Normal laps. The Group Races are 6 laps – 1 of which must be a Long Lap and one of which must be a Short Lap. The Race Off and Place Race are 5 laps, 1 of which must be a Long Lap and one of which must be a Short Lap. The Finals are like the Group Race – 6 laps including 1 long and 1 short.

Boosts
Then there are the boosts. Pilots are allowed to draw extra energy out of the battery – for bursts of speed up to 20 seconds. The catch is that the time it takes to prepare for another boost is twice as long as the boost itself. So, if a pilot takes a boost for 10 seconds they will have to wait for 20 seconds before they can take another. Between the lap lengths and the boosts, there is a LOT of strategy involved, and the pilots are in constant contact with ‘Mission Control’ back at the dock.

Points

Points are awarded for final results of each weekend: 1 – 38 pts; 2 – 30 pts; 3 – 24 pts; 4 – 19 pts; 5 – 15 pts; 6 – 12 pts; 7 – 9 pts; 8 – 7 pts.

Points are also awarded for the three Pole Positions after the Qualifying Races: 1 – 3 pts; 2 – 2 pts; 3 – 1 pt. And there is a single point available for fastest lap of the weekend.

The Dubrovnik E1 Races

The team of basketball superstar LeBron James – Team AlUla – joined the E1 Series at the beginning of this second season, so Dubrovnik was only their third event, after the season opener in Jedda, Saudi Arabia in January and second race weekend in Doha, Qatar a month later.

Read the Plugboats reports of Season 2 Races: Jedda   Doha

AlUla was sitting in the number four position coming out of the Time Trials and entering the Qualifying Race 1 when male pilot Rusty Wyatt (Canada) timed his approach to the starting line perfectly, crossing it at full speed almost exactly at 0:00 and jumping to an early lead that no one else had a chance of making up. Congratulations to Rusty, partner pilot Catie Munnings (USA) and the entire Team AlUla in claiming their very first #1 Pole Position for the Group Races.

“Absolutely incredible!” said Wyatt. “We came up with that strategy with our great race engineer Barney, and just executed it perfectly. It felt so good to get to that first turn first and that’s just the beginning for Team AlUla. We’re going to make an impact around here.”

Gaining the pole for the Group Races also gave AlUla 3 points in the season championship race (moving them ahead of Mark Anthony’s Team Miami) while overall leader Team Rafa received 2 points for second place and Team Aoki 1 point for placing third. Fourth and fifth were taken by Team Brady and Team Blue Rising, owned by Indian’s Virat Kohil, the most awarded player in international cricket history.

Challenging waters on the Saturday

The E1 electric speedboat races took place just outside Dubrovnik’s main harbour, which created some challenging conditions. Not only did the pilots have to contend with the swell of the Adriatic, but also the chop created by the dozens of boats that are out on the water on a sunny Saturday: everything from kayakers to fishing boats to luxury yachts to tourist ferries and even a pirate ship.

The Group Races carried on the excitement and drama from Friday. During the first of the four races, with (AlUla, Brady, Blue Rising and Team Drogba owned by Cote d’Ivoire / Chelsea footballer Didier Drigba)  AlUla pilot Catie Munning hit a course marker and was assessed a 40 second penalty.

Mashael Alobaidan started the winning for Aoki Racing in the second Group Race (Rafa, Aoki, Will Smith’s Westwood Racing, Mark Anthony’s Team Miami, Marcelo Claure’s Team Brazil). The female pilot triumphed in a closely-fought contest against Westbrook Racing’s Sara Price, with their race birds even making contact at one stage. 

That race should have been won by Rafa pilot Cristina Lazarraga, but a mistake meant Lazarraga took her long lap too late and was penalized, dropping her from first to last after the chequered flag. 

In the second stage of the Group Races Alobaidan’s counterpart pilot Dani Clos stormed from last to first to complete Aoki’s strong start, instantly booking their place in the final alongside the Blue Rising team that had prevailed in the other half of the Group round. 

Brazil and Drogba were relegated to the Place Race while Teams Rafa, Brady, AlUla, Miami and Westbrook were headed to the Race Off to see which three would go to the finals and which two would go to the Place Race to battle over points in the championship, but with no chance of weekend podium glory.

Aoki overcomes time penalties in each final to win

Brady, AlUla and Rafa came out top three in Race Off and the Finals were set. In Final 1 Alobaidan was tasked with securing the best grid position possible for the points-paying Final 2. 

She claimed third in that race, recovering well from a long lap penalty for jumping the race start. Finnish racer Emma Kimiläinen took victory in that race to hand pole position to her Brady teammate Sam Coleman, who had dominated in each of the races he participated in. 

Incredibly, Aoki Racing picked up a start line infringement in Final 2, although it also meant that Clos swept into the lead well before the first corner. The penalty the race officials assessed was an extra long lap during the race – two instead of one. However, he had a sizeable lead over Catie Munnings of AlUla and a buffer of over 10 seconds when the long lap penalty was issued.

That allowed him to still emerge in the lead of the race, this time ahead of Team Brady’s Sam Coleman, who lost valuable time at the start. 

An astonished Clos felt a rollercoaster of emotions through the final, having initially been baffled by his penalty.

“I was so mad, I was so angry because from inside, I felt I was well on the spot and even had a margin, so when they told me that I had a penalty, I couldn’t believe it,” Clos said.

 “When I got the penalty, I thought Brady already done the long lap, but Sam still had to do it, so my emotions went from calm, then super mad and angry, then super focused again. 

But it turned out well. It’s been amazing.”  

E1 electric speedboat race standings

Aoki Racing’s victory moves them into the lead of the championship ahead of Team Rafa, who took fourth in the final. 

True to Rusty Wyatt’s words about making an impact, Team AlUla secured their first podium of 2025 in third place, with Blue Rising rounding out the final’s top five teams.

The Place Race had to be red flagged when Erik Stark of Team Miami clipped the course marker at the first corner and damaged his race bird severely enough that he couldn’t restart the race. Team Drogba won out, followed by the Westbrook, Brazil and Miami.

There are four races to go in this second E1 electric speedboat Grand Prix season: June 27 & 28 on Lake Maggiore in Italy; July 18 & 19 in Monaco; October 4 & 5 in Lagos, Nigeria and November 7 & 8, Miami, FL, USA. 

While the points look quite spread out, remember there is a big spread between the 1st place finishers’s 38 and the 19 points for finishing fourth. This is still anybody’s season to win – or lose.

2025 E1 Championship: Standings after Race 3, Dubrovnik

PLC	TEAM	OWNER	FEMALE	MALE	PTS
1	Aoki Racing Team	Steve Aoki	Mashael Alobaidan	Dani Clos	109
2	Team Rafa	Rafael Nadal	Cris Lazarraga	Tom Chiappe	93
3	Team Brady	Tom Brady	Emma Kimiläinen	Sam Coleman	63
4	Team Blue Rising	Virat Kohli	Sara Misir	John Peeters	52
5	Westbrook Racing	Will Smith	Sara Price	Lucas Ordóñez	47
6	Team AlUla	Championed by LeBron James	Catie Munnings	Rusty Wyatt	45
7	Team Drogba	Didier Drogba	Oban Duncan	Micah Wilkinson	41
8	Team Miami powered by Magnus	Marc Anthony	Anna Glennon	Erik Stark	25
9	Team Brazil by Claure Group	Marcelo Claure	Marit Stromoy	Timmy Hansen	23

E1 Series website