Gillman's Retirement & Cappellini's Collapse Top 2007!

ABU DHABI, UAE – 2nd of January, 2008 – In just one year new World Champion Sami Selio of the F1 Team Energy squad turned his reputation around from someone who was occasionally fast but unlucky, to a driver who could win under pressure capturing 3 wins in 8 starts to earn his first ever F1 title on the world wide U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating.

The native of Helsinki, Finland started the season with a 4th at the Grand Prix of Portugal followed by his first ever victory at the Grand Prix of France on a rough and windy day in La Rochelle in his 64th career start. A four month recess in the schedule saw him head off to China in October taking two straight 3rd place podium finishes before hitting a rough patch in the season. His 5th in Doha’s first event followed by a qualifying crash with Italian Guido Cappellini almost derailed his season as he finished 7th in the race in his borrowed boat from teammate Stanislav Kourtsenovsky. Most pilots would have given up at this point but not Sami.

The driver who began racing in F1 in 1998 from F4 was known for his immediate speed and won “Rookie of the Year” honors. During this season he took 3 top-5 finishes highlighted by a brilliant 4th place finish in Abu Dhabi after starting 21st off the dock.

Sami’s early career success would literally disappear the following two years when he elected to help the ill fated OMC engine project that was run by the late ex-World Champion Cees van der Velden. Selio would finish just 4 races in 1999 and 2000 while failing to start in 6 with various engine problems that kept him on the shore. But that’s past history, let’s get to the present.

This season saw rejuvenation in the 31 year-old driver. Sami seemed to save his best for last winning from the pole in the final two events at Abu Dhabi and at Sharjah to take a brilliant come from behind series title when most would have thought he had no chance.

For nine-time World Champion Guido Cappellini of Como, Italy, 2007 became a replay of his 2006 nightmare. Once again he was leading in the title run going into the final event in Sharjah only having to place 6th or higher in the final race to take his much desired 10th title. Only once again the race gods were not looking favorably on Cappellini as for the 2nd straight year he failed to reach the finish dropping out and losing another title.

The Tamoil Team driver started the season well with a 2nd at Portugal but dropped out in France with steering failure after crashing with another boat and falling back in championship by 20 points. However, with the back to back success in the two Chinese Grand Prix’s with a 2nd in Xi’an and a win in Shenzhen, he moved to the front of the championship table. The 48 year-old driver put more pressure on the field with another 2-1 series of finishes in Doha giving him a 15 point margin with two races to go in the Emirates. His season finally fell apart in Sharjah when he stopped on the race course in 6th place earning no points and finishing with 100 points on the season which was 4 less than World Champion Selio was able to muster after the 8 months of racing.

Cappellini shared time with three other drivers as teammates on the Tamoil squad in 2007. First came fellow Italian driver Marco Gambi racing the first two European rounds and returning late in the season with the Singha F1 Team finishing with a single point in four race starts. Another Italian driver with a lot of talent was last years “Rookie of the Year” Ivan Brigada who was let go from Cappellini’s team after crashing out in two of his four official starts with a season’s best 4th at the Grand Prix of Shenzhen being his highlight for 2007. Ugis Gross of Latvia came over from the F2000 World Cup and raced twice in December in the Emirates with a 10th place finish in Abu Dhabi followed by a failure to finish in Sharjah.

Thani Al Qamzi led the Emirates Team to another “Team Championship” while finally showing the world that he was ready to step forward and be counted on as a real contender for future world titles finishing 3rd in the championship with 79 points. The 29 year-old from Abu Dhabi had a brilliant mid-season campaign with two wins and two 2nd place finishes during the Chinese and Qatar campaigns. He came home to the Emirates with a lot of confidence and a possible serious run at the title. However, Thani would fall short of his goal with a big failure to finish while in 2nd at his home grand prix followed by a non inspiring 4th place finish in Sharjah and 3rd overall in the drivers championship at season’s end.

Thani did his best helping lead his squad to the Team Championship as newcomer Ahmed Al Hamli earned “Rookie of the Year” honors finishing the season in 10th place in the championship with 18 points with a fine 4th place in Doha’s 2nd race as his highlight performance of the year.

The third driver on the team Majeed Al Mansoori started one race in Abu Dhabi and qualified 20th eventually dropping out and being classified 17th at races end as he is expected to race full time in 2008 on the Emirates squad.

The find of the season came from Swedish driver Pierre Lundin. He put in a “back from the future” campaign returning to F1 for his first full season since 2003 and was the surprise of 2007 giving the Comparato Racing effort a 4th place finish in the standings with 51 points. His statistics were highlighted with two straight podiums and 4 top-5 finishes in eight starts. His strongest effort may have come at the very rough first race in Doha on the 24th of November when he started 10th and finished 3rd for his first career podium finish. Teammate Fabio Comparato from Italy had one of his worst recorded seasons with just 3 points earned in 7 starts. Four times he failed to finish a race for a driver who has 15 career podiums including a victory in Malaysia in 2004.

The Qatar Team started with high hopes with number 1 driver Jay Price leading the way with a podium in Portugal followed by a strong 4th place finish in France. However, three straight DNF’s forced this team to regroup in mid-season. The native of New Orleans, Louisiana got his 2nd wind with three straight finishes including a fine 2nd at the last event in Sharjah after a 5th in Doha and a 7th in Abu Dhabi. He came home 5th in the championship at seasons end with 47 points despite a boat that was grossly overweight and didn’t handle at its best when the new crash boxes were installed on the outside of the cockpit at the start of the season.

Rookie teammate Leo Bonelli of Italy had back to back top 10 performances at the first two events including a fine 7th in France. He then had a series of medical problems including a back injury that would eventually end his season on a sour note finishing 17th in the championship with 7 points. Overall, this team has a lot of talented individuals associated with it with Pelle Larsson as Team Manager and Brenden Power as engine developer and with new boats on the horizon this team should be in a real position to make a title run in 2008.

The key story of the year came in the 3rd race of the season in China at the Grand Prix of Xi’an when defending World Champion Scott Gillman of the Emirates Team, who was leading in the championship looking for his 5th title, started feeling sick in the middle of the race and had to pull out prematurely. After extensive testing it was determined that the smart thing for this 48 year-old driver from Los Angeles, California was to retire from the sport as a driver. He finished the year 6th in the driver’s championship with 35 points despite an abbreviated season.

Scott ends his career with 23 victories in 89 starts. This is the second highest winning percentage of any driver in the history of the sport with a 25.8% chance of victory for each race start. Scott holds the all-time mark of 55 podiums in his 60 official race finishes for an amazing 91.6%. This incredible record of reaching the podium may never be beaten. Only Cappellini is even somewhat close enough to challenge this record with a 77.6% mark.

Scott’s 4 world titles are second only to Cappellini’s nine. These were set in a little over 10 years of racing compared to Guido’s 18 seasons. Scott Gillman will go down in this sport as one of the most talented and gifted drivers ever to enter this sport. He will continue to give back to the sport he loves remaining on to continue to coach the young Emirates Team drivers and be a valuable member of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club for years to come.

David Trask once again led his X.P.V. Racing Team with 31 points to finish 7th in the drivers championship on the strength of a podium at the final event of the year in Sharjah along with four other top-10 performances. His highlight came when he earned his first ever pole position at the rough Grand Prix of France course in La Rochelle. The native of Queensland, Australia had a huge crash at the 6th round in Qatar when he pin wheeled his boat to a dramatic stop on the final corner of the course forcing a major fix of the hull for the final two Emirates races.

Older brother Bob Trask who was 7th in 2006, finished 19th this season gaining 5 points with a 7th in Shenzhen being his “high water mark” of the year. Both drivers are expected back with new boats and ready to take a step forward and run for the title.

Philippe Chiappe of Rouen, France led the Atlantic Team with 29 points and 8th in the championship. He had a breakthrough performance with a 4th in race number five in Qatar along with 4 other top-10 finishes. He had a big crash in Shenzhen that slowed down his mid-season momentum.

Teammate Duarte Benavente of Portugal finished just 4 races in seven starts with his best day coming at the Grand Prix of Xi’an in China with a 7th place. The likeable driver from Azietao had a rare crash at the first race in Doha forcing him to sit out the 2nd race in order to get repairs done. This took away any charge he had left in his program and now looks forward for 2008 to prove that he can come back.

Swedish driver Jonas Andersson slipped backwards in 2007 after finishing runner-up to “Rookie of the Year” honors a year ago. His only two finishes both were podium finishes with a 3rd at the Grand Prix of France and late in the year at the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi. Reliability was his shortcoming with 5 DNF’s and a large crash with driver Chiappe coming at the Grand Prix of Shenzhen. The driver from Fruvi, who finished 9th in the standings with 24 points, improved in his qualifying reaching the “Top-6 Shootout” 5-times and hopes to get to the finish more often next season for a run at the title in his 3rd full season.

Teammates of Jonas on the F1 Team Sweden effort were both rookies in Philippe Tourre of France and Marit Stromoy of Norway. Tourre finished 14th in the championship gaining most of his 9 points with a 6th at Xi’an and a 7th at Doha before moving his racing over to the Qatar Team late in the season after his new DAC broke apart in Doha.

Marit became the first women in over two decades to run on the U.I.M. F1 world circuit when she arrived on the scene from the F2000 World Cup Tour for the final four races in the Middle East. The professional entertainer, who now makes her home in Copenhagen, ran a steady pace finishing 3 of the four events and capturing her first set of points at the final round in Sharjah with a fine 8th place to pick up 3 points on the season.

Francesco Cantando of the Singha F1 Team was coming off his worst season ever in his 11 years of F1 racing having earned just 4 points in 2006. This year it was a lot better for the driver from Milan, with a top-5 finish and 4 top-10’s as he now has started to “right the ship” and hopefully will be back to his strong showing once again that has seen him win 11 times on the circuit and finish 3-times runner-up in the championship.

Teammate Franco Leidi another Italian is the oldest driver in F1 and saved the best for last finishing 10th at the final round at the Grand Prix of Sharjah. It was Franco’s first top 10 in over a few years as he finished 6 times in the seven races he started in 2007.

French veteran Philippe Dessertenne had his first full season with the China CTIC Charente Maritime Team and came home 12th in the championship with 15 points. His best weekend for qualifying came in China at Xi’an with a well earned 2nd place but his first corner mishap took all the excitement away and he was never able to find the same magic again as the season went along. The likeable driver from La Rochelle was heavily involved in putting together the 2nd Grand Prix in his hometown while finishing twice in 5th place at Portugal and Shenzhen Grand Prix’s with a total of 3 top-10’s at years end.

Peng Lin Wu was Philippe’s teammate and who continues to get to grips with the F1 culture racing in 6 of the 8 races while finishing 4 races just outside the top 10 for no championship points. His biggest moment came in practice in the last event in Sharjah where he and Pierre Lundin came together in a big way ending his season. He’s hoping to be back in 2008.

Ex-World Champion Fabrizio Bocca had some bright moments during the year finishing 12th in the drivers standings with a string of 6 straight top-10 finishes going into the final two rounds in the Emirates. He had 3 straight 8th place finishes in La Rochelle, Xi’an and Shenzhen and DNF’d in Abu Dhabi and crashed out early at the final round in Sharjah being his only blemish of the season for the driver from Cassalle.

Teammates with Fabrizio on the Rainbow Team included Valerio Lagiannella who raced 5 times with a pair of 12th’s being his best effort for the 34 year old racer from Lecco, Italy. Then American star Shaun Torrente of Miami, Florida came to Abu Dhabi and easily qualified for the race starting 10th but failed to get into the event after blowing up his only engine and missed his much heralded debut in the process.

Russian driver Stanislav Kourtsenovsky joined Sami Selio on the F1 Team Energy squad coming back after a 3 year absence while searching for his groove again. His best performance of the year in qualifying came with an excellent 5th starting spot in round #5 in Doha while his 6th place finish at the Grand Prix of France was his best race finish of the season. He helped his teammate win the world title when he lent him his boat for the 6th round in Doha while he sat out. His 8 points gave him 16th in the championship.

Two long time veterans Andy Elliott of the Ace Racing Team along with Massimo Roggiero of the newly formed Woodstock Racing effort saw limited time on the 2007 tour but both made their marks. Elliott finished with 4 points in his three starts taking a pair of 9th place positions in the final two races in the Emirates charging up from 19th and 16th starting positions in his limited budget effort.

Massimo, running one of his newly developed BABA boats that was run by 5 other drivers including the World Champion Sami Selio, made it to the final two rounds and reached the top-6 in qualifying both times. His 3rd at Sharjah was a real eye opener and proved why he is a 3-time winner on the tour. His failure to finish either race was a bit of dent in the road for his plans for the next season however.

All in all 30 drivers from 15 nations participated in one of the most exciting championships in the past 10 years as the final race of the season would once again determine the World Champion. For the first time in over 8 years someone other than American Scott Gillman or Italian Guido Cappellini would be declared worlds best.

It took a decade of trying and 70 races of effort to be completed, but 31 year-old Sami Selio of Helsinki, Finland driving Massimo Roggiero’s Italian built BABA boat came away winning the world title with 104 points and can now lay claim to U.I.M. F1 World Champion for 2007. Congratulations to Sami and best of luck to all drivers who will challenge him for that title in 2008!