Tuesday, 28 February: Defending champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq knows there will be a raft of riders amongst the 16 from 13 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 him will 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 proven winner 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 including Christophe Agostinho, Andrzej Wisniewski and Johan Johanssen as well as five newcomers all looking to make a name for themselves; Burak Erverdi, Guy Greenland, Carl Lampe, James Masterton and Anton Pankratov .

RUNABOUT GP1

1 Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq (kuw)

10 Christophe Agostinho (fra)

11 Marcus Jorgensen (den/*hun)

13 Burak Erverdi (ger)

15 James Bushell (gbr)

20 Guy Greenland (aus)

21 Patrice Pellier (fra)

25 Andrzej Wisniewski (pol)

30 Lars Akerblom (swe)

66 Frederik Brandao (ger)

84 Johan Johansson (swe)

86 Jeremy Perez (fra)

Carl Lampe (nzl)

James Masterton (aus)

Anton Pankratov (est)

Wu Ronghua (chn)

(* racing license)