ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Thursday, December 3, 2009 – Finland's Sami Selio is on a special mission this weekend.
It begins when he puts his Mad Croc sponsored BABA boat in the water around the inner harbor of Abu Dhabi for Friday's 13th round of the 2009 U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship for power boating at the 17th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi.
What is this mission? The driver from Helsinki is hoping to start once again a string of pole position performances that he tied for with five straight including his four in China at Liuzhou and Shenzhen coupled with a number one place at the first of two Grand Prix's last weekend in Doha. The five pole positions matched for one season the five straight that four-time World Champion Scott Gillman set his rookie season of 1997 with his first five races ever run on the F1 tour.
“We are proud of what we have done this season in terms of speed and I have a great boat that Massimo Roggiero built and feel there is a possibility I can run off another streak before we finish the final round on the 11th of December,” said Sami. “You get in the groove and things just seem to come together easily.”
The all out record for the number of pole positions in a row is owned by Italian veteran Guido Cappellini who between the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003 season's ran off seven straight. The driver from Como has a total of 68 poles since 1995 and two this season. In his 16 previous starts in Abu Dhabi Guido has earned the pole position seven times with his last being during the 2006 event where he went on to win.
In Abu Dhabi, Cappellini has won more than anyone with other multiple winners being Francesco Cantando, Scott Gillman, Jonathan Jones, Laith Pharaon and Felix Serralles all with two apiece.
Tomorrow's edition of the 2009 U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship will begin at 15:30 local, 11:30 GMT and 07:30 EST on the East Coast of North America. The race can be followed entirely by going to the official website at www.f1h2o.com beginning at 15:00 local time.
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