ABU DHABI, U.A.E. – Sunday, February 14, 2010 – While most of Europe and North America are mired in a long cold winter season, the 2010 U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship is heating up, now less than 90 days away with the planning already reaching a fever pitch around the world for the various players in this upcoming season’s championship.
The 2007 World Champion Sami Selio of Finland has been spending his usual working schedule in Northern Italy at the race shops of master boat builder and friend Massimo Roggiero as they have put together the latest BABA racing hull for the upcoming campaign that begins on the weekend of May 8-9 in the lovely city of Portimao, on Portugal’s Algarve coast.
The 34 year-old driver from Helsinki, who finished third in last years championship with 135 points and set an all-time record pole positions with eight including five in a row, will be hoping to improve on his three victories in last season’s 16 races and move back to the head of the field of drivers and win his second world title.
Selio will be attending this weekend’s Helsinki Boat Show that starts Friday the 12th and will be a special star of the show. He’ll be lucky to escape the event without a sore arm signing what is expected to be hundreds of autographs during his time there with his multitude of fans throughout Finland and nearby Russia.
Also busy during the winter season on the boat show circuit is German driver Fabian Kalsow long considered one of the most active marketing wizards on the F1 tour. The 28 year-old driver from Neustadt, will be switching teams this season joining the Atlantic F1 effort with Portuguese driver Duarte Benavente as new teammate for 2010.
“It is a great deal for me to join Duarte for the upcoming season,” said Fabian. “He’s not only is a true professional in every sense but also a friend. Plus, the bonus I will now have this season is a place where I can go and seriously test before the start of the campaign which is something I have missed in years past.”
Fabian placed 13th in the championship in 2009 with 30 points. He’s proven to be the most consistent driver on the tour and also in the history of the sport having failed to finish only one race in 25 that he has started. The young German driver is hoping to have his new BABA boat ready to go by the start of the season in Portugal.
Norway’s Marit Stromoy continues her busy off-season while performing five nights a week in Oslo on stage singing and dancing. In her rare free moments, she spends the other time lining up sponsors for her upcoming race season while sharpening her skills by racing in the domestic and well sorted South African F1 series.
“I’ve been really busier than ever,” said Marit. “I not only have a full plate here in Oslo, but have had a chance to race in South Africa. At the last event, despite a ton of engine problems, I was able to set the fast lap by over a second and one-half in a DAC boat that dates back 18 years!”
Marit has signed on a pair of F1 sponsors already and looks to continue to shore up her full compliment of support by Portimao. She is hoping to gain as much worldwide exposure as American woman driver Danica Patrick is getting driving this season on the NASCAR circuit.
Stromoy finished strongly last season with a fifth at the final event in Sharjah taking two top five’s and nine top-10 results with a 12th place finish and 37 points in 2009.
The continuing changing face of the U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship for powerboats rolls on with less than three months before the start of its 30th year Anniversary season. Drivers and teams are moving ahead at full speed to make this season a special one, not only historically, but successfully as well. This sport, which encompasses three different continents, has developed into a 12 month effort for drivers and their teams in their continuing quest for the World Championship supremacy on water which has gotten more and more competitive and exciting year after year. Stay tuned.
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