ABU DHABI - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - For the second time in the history of UIM F1 H2O World Championship racing a Chinese driver will be in the line-up as the tour heads to the spectacular setting along the corniche for the 21st Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi for the fifth round of the championship season.
Xiong "Leo" Ziwei a 21 year-old driver from Shenzhen, China will be added to the powerful CTIC China Team after having raced for two seasons in the smaller F4S series. He will join veteran drivers Philippe Chiappe of France and Stanislav Kurtsenovskiy of Russia in the three boat line-up.
For Ziwei it's a dream come true, "I've been wanting to prove my self in this ultimate form of racing on water for the past two years and I want to thank Team Manager Eric Chan for giving me this chance to demonstrate my talents."
The young "Leo" was discovered three years ago in Shenzhen when he was demonstrating automotive "drifting" outside the racing paddock as part of the weekend Grand Prix program in Shenzhen and Chan spotted his talents of car control and felt he could probably could do the same in a race boat and offered the then teenager the opportunity to race in the introductory F4S class.
In the first year of the series "Leo" finished fifth in the Drivers Championship with two podiums and 109 points including a fine third place in Abu Dhabi in 2011. This season Xiong is fourth with 67 points with three podiums in his last six starts with four races to be run in the current campaign.
"Leo" becomes the second full time driver from China to participate in F1 with Peng Lin Wu being the first back in the 1997 season. Wu raced a total of 15 Grand Prix's never scoring any official points for his country.
This time around "Leo" is hoping he will change that since this is China's "Year of the Dragon". Maybe, just maybe there with a flame throwing performance from this one time "drifter" from Shenzhen. Time will tell.
The fifth and penultimate round of the 2012 UIM F1 H2O World Championship takes place starting on Thursday the 29th with official qualifying for pole position beginning at 15:00 local, 11:00 GMT and 06:00 EST on the East Coast of North America. The Grand Prix on Friday the 30th will begin at 15:30 local, 11:30 GMT and 06:30 EST.
Both qualifying and the Grand Prix can be watched live via the Worldwide Television feed by going directly to the series official website a www.f1h2o.com.
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