Champion Selio Wants First Win At Home In Lahti!
ABU DHABI, UAE – 28th of May, 2008 – Fresh from becoming a father for the 2nd time defending World Champion Sami Selio of the Woodstock Red Devil Racing Team can now focus his full attention to his home Grand Prix as the 3rd Round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for powerboat racing turns north to his home country of Finland and the lovely city of Lahti with the arrival of the world’s best drivers on water for the weekend of the 7th and 8th of June and the 4th Grand Prix of Finland.
Scoring a storied title run in 2007 that saw the 33 year old driver from Helsinki win the final to races in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah to snatch the World Championship, is now looking to regain that karma and get back on the winning track at his home Grand Prix.
“We are excited about being back home for this next important round of the 2008 season,” said Sami. “Being a new father again and having so many of my great followers that will be cheering for my team should help. We are not satisfied with the first two events and want to win at home and if not, regain at least a podium position to get back into the championship picture before ending the European campaign in these next two races.”
While the Finnish star looks for a win, so does Swedish driver Jonas Andersson of the F1 Team Sweden effort, 2nd in the championship with 20 points after a win at the Grand Prix of Qatar followed by a very disappointing effort in Portugal where he failed to finish the opening lap when he engine stopped.
“There is a great tradition here for Scandinavian drivers to do well,” stated Jonas. “We want to get back our momentum with another win and Finland would be a great place to do it since I will have friends visiting to watch us race as well.”
No Finnish driver has ever won at his home Grand Prix. In 1998 in Tampere, all eyes were following local driver Pertti Leppala who was in a battle for the championship that season with American Scott Gillman, Italian Guido Cappellini and Welshman Jonathan Jones. Leppala managed to qualify well in 3rd, but dropped out of the event early and finished a disappointing 16th. Swedish driver Goran Karlof ended up winning that day for his one career victory.
In 2002 French driver Philippe Dessertenne took the prize with his popular victory in downtown Helsinki followed by the Italian Francesco Cantando of Milan who won for the 8th time in his career in 2003 at the same venue. Both drivers are expected back and will be looking for a repeat of their luck on Finnish water once again.
So, a win on home soil this season? Well, we’ll have to wait and see. The man who has been the most consistent so far in 2008 is the American driver Jay Price of the Qatar Team. The driver from New Orleans, Louisiana is on a streak of sorts having been on the podium for the past three races including the last one of 2007 in Sharjah. His win at the last event at the Grand Prix of Portugal following a 2nd at his home Grand Prix in Doha back in April that now sees him at the top of the table with 35 points. It will be important for him to keep the pressure on the rest of the field with at least one podium finish in his next two races before the series heads off to the Far East in China after the summer recess.
So the Scandinavian names of Bertil Wik, Anders Andersson, Goran Karlof, Thomas Ericsson, Pertti Leppala, Jari Honkala, Michael Weckstrom, Thomas Guttormsen, Frode Sundsdal, Rolf Sunde and Gert Ladefoged just to name a few, combined with today’s names of Jonas Andersson, Pierre Lundin and Marit Stromoy who are expected to be fighting for a win proves that even though you may be living 50 degrees North of the equator, doesn’t mean you don’t have the fire and desire to become World Champion. Just ask Sami Selio.
