Dessertenne 2nd ; Gillman Crashes Out !

RIGA, LATVIA (3^rd JUNE) — He came and he conquered once again, as Italian Gudio Cappellini charged from 6^th place on the grid and eventually moved past leader American Scott Gillman at the one third mark of the race and fought his way back on the race restart past Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne to win the 2^nd annual Grand Prix of Latvia the 4^th stop on the U.I.M. F1 World Championship tour for racing.

The tens of thousands of fans who braved the ever changing wind and rainy weather, saw the 23 drivers from 15 different nations tackle a challenging 7-pin two kilometer course on the Daugava River. From the start, pole sitter Massimo Roggiero led with Cappellini getting a slow start while Gillman trailed behind in 2^nd and Latvian pilot Victor Kunitch of the Vivid Team getting large cheers from the partisan crowd.

Roggiero led for the first quarter of the race until Gillman tracked him down and eventually went around the Balcom TV racer while Cappellini was quickly closing in 3^rd with Dessertenne and Kunitch riding closly behind.

Gillman in his Burgess Emirates Team machine was holding off Cappellini in the ever changing and diffecult conditions until Cappellii made the move in the tight series of turns on the 17^th lap and moved past Gillman and into the lead. While the American tried to stay with Cappellini, he submarined his boat just as the pickle came off the front end and tore the sponson off the boat ending his race on the 19^th lap and putting the native of Basalt, Colorado in a giant hole early in the season in hopes of winning his 3^rd world title.

As Gillman crashed right in the middle of the front straight, Portugal rookie Antonio Feu in the Rainbow Racing machine went left around Gillman while Italian Ivan Torta of the Singha Team went right and the two met in a spectacular accident with Torta climbing over Feau before barrel rolling and ending his run along with Feu.

With 3 boats in pieces on the front straightaway, the race was stopped and restarted with Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne into the lead for the first time since Abu Dhabi of 1999. Dessertenne led for for 11 laps before Cappelllini made his move on the 30^th lap and went on to control the event and win by 29 seconds on the 2^nd place driver.

Latvian driver Kunitch was cruising around in 3^rd giving the large crowd a chance to cheer him on the podium at races end by the thousand for a good 5 minutes. Meanwhile, Cappellini’s teammate on the Assicom Team Yutaka Sugihara finished a fine 4^th 30 seconds ahead of a great 3 way battle for 5^th with Emirates Team driver Awad Al Qubaisi coming on strong taking 5^th from Francesco Cantando and Portgual driver Duarte Benavente who was 7^th in his Siemens machine.

Fabrizio Bocca had another solid event taking 8^th and moved up from the middle of the pack to take more championship points, while Finland’s Sami Selio after a strong 5^th at one time to 9^th in the end. England’s Andy Elliott rounded out the top 10 with a solid effort coming from the back of the grid.

Drivers like Massimo Roggiero were heart broken after leading for a long while before a fuel pump ended his day. Russian Stanislov Kourtsnovsky running for the Latvian Vivivd Team got involved with Italian Franco Leidi in the first turn and eventually crashed heavily on the back straight when his missing pickle fork caused the craft to dig in and end his day in spectacular fashion on the 3^rd lap.

Carlos Maidana of Argentina had a rough time of it after qualifying third on Saturday only having his race package not answer the bell on the start and find him dropping out 19 laps into the event.

Wth Cappellini’s third straight victory, he now gets ready to face a pressure cooker of racing the next 2 events in his home country of Italy beginning in two weeks time in Campione d Italia on the 17^th of June. Can Dessertenne keep up his strong run in his Fuchs machine or can Roggiero, Cantando or Gillman push Cappellini into a mistake in his finely tuned season. In two weeks we’ll know the answer.