ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Monday, September 7, 2009 – The premiere racing series in the world of power boating, the U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship gets ready to move it’s 2009 campaign to the ancient land of China for two back to back events in early October with stops in Liuzhou and ten days later in Shenzhen in a crucial mid-season swing of races that will go a long way in determining this years World Championship.
While the world will be watching the pair of Grand Prix’s of China in Liuzhou, known as the “Dragon City” and situated in the Southwest section of the country on the sixth and seventh of October, the races will mark the 10th trip to China dating back over a decade since the first race in Hangzhou in 1995.
Two drivers who continue to partake on the tour raced at the first event 14 years ago. Guido Cappellini, the winningest driver in the history of the sport with 58 victories in 160 race starts, has nine world championships and currently sits seventh in this season’s drivers battle with a win in Finland and 30 total points. His ex-teammate Massimo Roggiero, who also raced in the 1995 event, will be looking for his first finish of the season and his first points to go with it. The likeable driver from Northern Italy is also a boat builder and drives for the Mad Croc F1 Team Woodstock effort.
Cappellini, lead racer for his Zepter Team comes back to China having won races in Hangzhou in 1995, Wuxi in 1996 and Shenzhen in 2007. He has finished on the podium in six of the seven races he’s completed. It hasn’t been all good news for the native of Como, when a season ago he was involved in a first turn crash in Liuzhou and was subsequently handed a red card and a one race ban for his actions missing the second race in Shenzhen in 2008.
The defending World Champion Jay Price of the Qatar Team is sitting second in the championship with 55 points and has raced five times in China. Remarkably, for the American in the three finishes he’s had, all have been on the podium. Jay is the defending champion in Liuzhou along with a pair of second place results in 2006 including Shenzhen last year which helped propel him to his first title.
Last years winner in Shenzhen, Sami Selio of the Mad Croc F1 Team Woodstock racing effort, has earned the last two straight pole positions as well and he has been on the podium the last three times he’s finished with a pair of third’s in 2007 at Xian and Shenzhen. The driver from Helsinki is currently sixth in the championship with 34 points.
Sweden’s Jonas Andersson of Team Azerbaijan is fresh off his third career victory and his first of 2009 taking the second Grand Prix of the weekend in St. Petersburg three weeks ago moving him up to third in the championship with 52 points. Jonas has raced five times in China failing to finish the first four events before taking a fourth in Shenzhen a year ago. He’s had a wild array of premature race ending stories with a pair of mechanical shortcomings followed by two crashes. He’ll be looking to continue his podium run once again in the next two races in Liuzhou.
Team Abu Dhabi lead by Team Manager and four time World Champion Scott Gillman who has two wins and a second place result in the three races he’s completed in China. The California native will be pushing his pair of talented drivers in Thani Al Qamzi who leads the drivers championship with 65 points with a win in Portugal and three podiums along with five top five finishes in the season’s first six events. His teammate and fellow Abu Dhabi citizen Ahmad Al Hameli is fourth in the championship with 47 points with a win in Portimao, Portugal and a second in St. Petersburg.
Thani knows what it’s like to win in China taking the top step on the podium at the race in Xian in 2007 along with a second in Shenzhen that same year. Last season he failed to finish in both China Grand Prix’s.
Ahmad has four starts while finishing two of the four races including a podium finish in Shenzhen last season along with a DNF and a crash with Cappellini at the start last season in Liuzhou ending his day prematurely.
The China CTIC Team lead by Team Manager and long time veteran driver Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne leads his two talented drivers to their home Grand Prix’s with Swede Pierre Lundin arriving with a pair of top five finishes this season and tied for 12th in the championship with 14 points. Teammate Fabian Kalsow of Germany is 18th in points with a pair of ninth place finishes in Portugal and Russia being his best this season.
Italian driver Francesco Cantando has a long history of racing in China as the Milan driver with the Singha Team marked his first ever F1 debut event back in Wuxi in 1996. Since then he has raced eight times in China with a podium third place in Shanghai being his best effort back in 2004. He’s finished four times along with four failures to finish including twice last season. He’s currently ninth in the championship with 22 points as he chases his 12th career victory on the tour.
French driver Philippe Chiappe of the F1 Atlantic Team is still enjoying his first podium finish of his career after a third in St. Petersburg and now eighth in the championship with 23 points. He best career result in China is a fourth in Liuzhou last year.
His teammate Duarte Benavente of Portugal is tenth in the championship with 19 points and will be starting his seventh event in the far east with three top ten performances and a seventh in Xian in 2007 his best result of his career in China.
Drivers from three different continents will take to the lovely setting of the water festival in Liuzhou in the heart of Guanxi Province in Southwest China on the sixth and seventh of October for the seventh and eighth rounds of the 16 race 2009 U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship. The questions are many. By the time the two week trek is finished and four races at two different Grand Prix event’s are over, we should have a clearer picture of which drivers and teams at the half way point of the season will be honored as “Best in the World” on water for the 2009 campaign.
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