ABU DHABI - (Friday, February 7, 2014) - Two-time world champion Sami Selio is coming out with guns a blazin' as he dedicates the UIM F1 H2O World Championship season to his goal of winning his third world drivers title.
The Finnish driver, who led the 2013 drivers championship going into the final round in Sharjah, UAE in early December, only to lose out finishing fourth overall with 64 points, will once again lead his Mad-Croc Baba Team into a "new look era" of racing.
The veteran organization will feature new boats and upgraded power for the Mercury V-6 engines on the back of his Italian built BABA hulls that have done him well earning him the 2007 and 2010 world titles along with 12 career victories.
The veteran from Helsinki will be making his 120th career start as the season opens up on the 14th and15th of March along Doha Bay for the 10th Annual Grand Prix of Qatar.
The very difficult ocean fed course along the corniche of the city kicks off the eight month quest for a world championship on the world's biggest stage for water powered sports in it's historic 34th season since it's beginnings back in 1981.
"I am really psyched for the 2014 campaign to begin," said Sami. "We are announcing our full plans at the Helsinki Boat Show later this week highlighting the addition of new partners and dateline of the arrival of our newly designed BABA hulls that will be appearing during the season. With all this hard work in the off-season we are confident we can take this third title in '14."
Sami went on to say, "I am pleased to announce that my teammate for the third straight season will be my partner and friend Filip Roms, who at the tender age of 20, is going to really open up a lot of eyes this season with his continuing progression as an F1 pilot. I think this time around we will be seeing a pair of Mad-Croc drivers reaching a podium before this upcoming year goes to far down the road."
The young driver from Espoo, Finland has 10 career starts with six top-10 finishes and only one time failing to finish in his two year career on the F1 campaign. Filip had three straight top ten finishes at the end of last season. He is a prodigy from Selio's development class in Finland and was racing SJ-15's while going to Vocational School learning the home building trade just a few short years ago.
For Selio, his career dates back to 1998 in the F1 class, arriving from F4 making his first ever Grand Prix start in Chalon, France in June of that year. Sami would finish with three top-five results including a year's best fourth in Abu Dhabi on his way to Rookie-of-the-Year honors.
Known as a fast qualifier, Sami leads all active drivers with 21 career pole positions, including a well earned record in 2009 when he ran off five straight taking eight pole positions that season.
The "Finnish Flyer" was the odds on favorite to win his third title going into last season's final event in Sharjah in mid-December. Sami, shocked his racing followers around the world by uncharacteristically barrel rolling in the Q2 session during Qualifying and all but eliminating any realistic chance of the title. In the Grand Prix he dropped out for only the second time all of 2013 and thus dropping out of the top-three in the drivers championship.
With testing already beginning for some teams the opening Grand Prix of the 2014 UIM F1 H2O World Championship is just a little more than a month away as drivers from around the globe will arrive in one of the world's most dazzling new cities, Doha, Qatar for the start of the campaign to see who's the world's most talented driver and race team in F1.
Last year it was the Qatar Team that swept the honors winning both the Team and Drivers title, this year veteran Sami Selio is hoping to steer his talented crew led by Racing Team Manager Michael Jenkins to glory for the third time in the past eight years and bring the championship trophy back to Finland!
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