ABU DHABI - (Saturday, 18^th of August, 2012) - If the early voting tallies continue to be the trend, Dutch superstar legend Cees Van der Velden will cruise to his selection as part of the next class of members to the UIM F1 H2O World Championships Hall Of Fame for 2012.

The seven-time World Champion of powerboat racing, has jumped out to a dominating early lead by way of  worldwide internet voting for this years UIM F1 H2O World Championship Hall-Of-Fame "Fast Lap" Award receiving over 50% of the votes in less than two weeks of the selection process.

The award, which salutes great individuals who have made a major impact into the history of the sport of F1 powerboat racing, is unique in that both the members of the global media and fans of the sport who follow the UIM F1 H2O World Championship, play a major part in the selection process. Together they cast their ballot by voting online at the tours official website at www.f1h2o.com for two of the four candidates who have been nominated for the honor each year.

"It's an exciting journey checking day to day to see who is earning those two valuable places for selection into this years Hall Of Fame," said series Promoter Nicolo di San Germano. "For the winning pair, it's a place in history that no one can take away from their legacy and I think this is important for the history of the sport to remember and hi-lite all these individuals whether they are elected into the Hall-Of-Fame or not at the end of the day."

While Cees has received over half of the votes thus far, a great battle behind him featuring three people from Great Britain continues to brew. David Burgess, the sports winningest boat designer with over 45 World Championships to his name in various classes including F1, sits second with over 20% of the votes.

Veteran promoter and visionary David Parkinson, who helped steer the current F1 series from it's infancy, eventually developing it into  a truly worldwide tour, is at the moment in third place, just a few percentage points back trying to move up into the second position. 

Surprisingly, Bob Spalding, a racing hero from the late 1970's into the mid-1980's who was a multi-time World Champion, as well as being an official Mercury Marine driver and many time Paris 6-hour winner lags behind in fourth position.

"It's nice to see Cees with such a nice margin in the lead, but, it's early in the voting process and this three way battle for the second and final position into the Hall-Of-Fame will probably go right down to the final day at the end of September and isn't that the way it should be?" added Nicolo.

The voting is once again open to all the fans who follow the UIM F1 H2O World Championship tour by going to the official website at www.f1h2o.com and is open until the last week of September with the two winning selectees being announced at the next round of the 2012 championship at the Grand Prix of China in Liuzhou on the 1^st and 2^nd of October.

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