LIUZHOU, China - September 30, 2013 - For two-time World Champion Sami Selio of Finland, the number one driver of the Mad Croc Team is just hoping to finish a race here on the Liu River as the third round of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship comes for the 19th Grand Prix of China.
Selio, who trails by just a single point in the drivers championship behind current leader Shaun Torrente of the Qatar Team, knows that now is the time to complete the Grand Prix having raced in Liuzhou six times and completing only the one he won in 2009.
"This place has been a real head scratcher for me," said Sami. "I've had great success early in the history of this race qualifying with three straight pole positions in the first three events here back in 2008 and 2009 but haven't done so since," said the driver from Helsinki.
"I have taken two straight, earning pole in Brazil and Kyiv in 2013 and want to keep the streak alive this week as well. I am chasing my record of five in a row that I set in 2009. We continue to feel we have a qualifying set up that will be hard to beat. That's a great feeling. We'll see tomorrow."
Sami in Liuzhou came out strong in 2008 earning pole but a mechanical ended his day handing the race to American Jay Price as the Qatar Team driver would use this event as a spring board to his world championship season.
The race event in 2009 had back to back races in a two day race weekend with everything going right for the "Finnish Flyer" to take the victory from pole but the next day again starting from the first position, he dropped out finishing 15th and losing valuable points in his search for a world title.
In 2010, Sami qualified fourth and quickly went out with a mechanical issue taking again no points and being classified 16th in his only non finish of the season leading to his second World Championship.
Then came 2011. Sami fighting to stay up in the lead group of drivers went into the first corner past the start-finish line and launched off a wave and nose dived the boat at 200 kilometers per hour ending his season with injuries and forcing him to be a spectator for the final two races of the season.
Last year, starting from the second position, the 38 year-old driver chasing his third world title was caught up on a three boat restart going into the far turn on the back straightaway in the race when Torrente coming up from behind tagged him taking both boats out of the event and when the water had settled saw the Florida driver penalized for the rest of the season for aggressive driving. Selio's dreams of a third title once again washed away that afternoon.
So, six races in the books in Liuzhou and just one finish with that win in 2009.
The good news, every race Sami finishes on the Liu River he wins. The bad news, he hasn't finished since 2009.
That is a long time ago.
We'll soon know as tomorrow as the official qualifying one hour "shootout" for pole position takes place at 15:00 local, 07:00 GMT and 03:00 EDT on the East Coast of North America. You can follow all the qualifying live via the tours official website at www.f1h2o.com via the worldwide broadcast feed.
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