Months of thick elbow grease is worth a moment of fame for Fred Leland. In fact, the hard work is part of the sport of hydroplane racing.

Behind a three-inch thick window at Leland Unlimited, his hydroplane manufacturing facility, Leland points to an engine he is rebuilding on a recent afternoon in Kirkland. The sound-proofed room allows Leland to fire up the motor and check for any problems.

“You pretty near work all year to go racing,” said Leland, whose U-100 Mirage Boats unlimited hydroplane he built will race for the coveted Oryx Cup UIM World Championship in Doha, Qatar, a small peninsula located on the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The World Cup, which runs Nov. 19-21, marks the first time the American Boat Racing Association will host a race outside North America.

Ten of the fastest racing boats in the world, including Leland’s 6,800-pound U-100, just arrived in the Middle East this week to compete for the final race of the year.

A seasoned racing fanatic, Leland holds the title of the winningest active unlimited owner on the ABRA circuit, with 17 victories under his belt. He has competed as a driver, designer and builder throughout his career, with his most successful season in 1996 when his PICO American Dream claimed six victories during the competition and the National High Point Championship.

Leland has since sold his PICO American Dream to the newly formed U-48 team. The Maple Valley-based team will race the boat alongside of Leland’s U-100 during the Oryx Cup event.

Leland got into the sport of hydroplane racing more than 30 years ago, when he bought a five-liter hydroplane from a friend.

“I think when you’re bit by the bug, you really get into it,” he said.

He built his first piston-powered unlimited hydroplane in 1982, but not without the help of Redmond resident Jim Harvey, now team manager for the Oryx Cup event.

“It took him several trips to my shop,” recalled Harvey, who owned a boat shop in Seattle and owned his own team for 20-plus years before joining Leland last year.

Since Leland opened his shop in Kirkland more than 20 years ago, he has built nine turbine hydros. Now, his focus is mostly on racing.

For the upcoming two-mile race on Doha Bay, Leland says the team has a couple obstacles ahead of them.

“There’s high salt content over there (Persian Gulf) and these turbine engines don’t like salt water,” Leland said, adding salt can ruin the blades if you don’t clean them after each race.

Harvey says salt is “instant death. So you need to stay out of the major salt and away from the tails because it’ll hang in the air for a little bit because of the mist.”

Salt can also cause a hydro to go off balance, “so salt water isn’t the greatest place to race, but we’ve learned through the years how to do it and it works pretty good,” Leland noted.

Also, because this is the first time the championship is being held in the Middle East, race participants will have to get used to new codes of conduct.

“So they’re getting briefed on what to do and what not to do,” Leland said.

It costs a lot to run a hydroplane, so teams need a good sponsorship, he noted. But in Qatar “you don’t look for sponsors,” Leland said. “If you don’t have a sponsor, they come down and sponsor you.”

Though this will be the first race that Leland won’t be able to attend because he is currently undergoing chemotherapy, he is confident Harvey will handle everything well.

“I don’t think I could’ve run the circuit last year because I was so deep into cancer and chemo, so it all worked out well,” Leland said of Harvey’s help.

And when the hydro sets out to qualify for the preliminary heat races at 130 mph or higher, Harvey will depend on driver, Greg Hopp, to take it from there.

“It’s kind of a 50-50 deal. You hope that the driver holds up his end and is aggressive and the equipment runs good and doesn’t break down,” said Harvey. “It’s always gratifying if it runs good.”

But it would be most satisfying if the team takes the World Cup title.

“It’ll be a good way to end the season,” said Harvey. “You put a lot of hours in to get it ready to run and you can’t even compare the ratio of how much time is spent in preparation to get it to the point where you can put it in the water and then it’s five minutes of fame of a heat race.”