Cappellini And Al Qamzi Ready To Return To Winning!
DOHA, Qatar – 27th of March, 2008 – Defending World Champion Sami Selio is aiming to turn around his bad luck in Doha as the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating opens up the 2008 campaign on a new race site along the cornice in downtown Doha for the 5th Annual Grand Prix of Qatar this weekend.
The 32 year-old from Helsinki has never done well here on the rough waters in four previous starts qualifying a career best 4th back in 2005 at the first event and hoping to better than last years 5th and 13th in the two back to back events last November here on the edge of the Arabian Gulf.
“We feel we have shaken away all the bad luck and now with the championship in our pockets entering this new season we can carry some great confidence into the opening round of 2008”, said Selio. “With my new teammate and friend Massimo Roggiero we come into the season with a little more knowledge of the boats and at the same time a more laid back attitude that will pay dividends as the season goes along.”
If this is the case the other teams and drivers should be worried. One driver in particular who can’t be rattled is 9-time World Champion Guido Cappellini of the DAC Team who has won two of the four previous events here on the cornice in downtown Doha.
The resident of Como, Italy has been stuck in a two year drought as he will start his third straight season trying to get his record breaking 10th title in his 19th year in the U.I.M. F1 series. Guido has oddly enough tied his season together with Russian pilot Stanislav Kourtsenovsky who comes back to DAC after three years away from racing and then joining last season with the world champion Selio Team. Maybe his good luck will rub off on Cappellini this season as well.
The Team Abu Dhabi based out of Abu Dhabi comes into the new campaign for the first time without it’s 4-time World Champion Scott Gillman who has retired and is now the Team Manager working with his talented duo of Thani Al Qamzi and Ahmad Al Hameli. Thani scored a victory here in Doha last fall in the first of back to back races in his brief run for the championship that fell short, and Al Hameli is pushing for more this season after winning “Rookie of the Year” honors in 2007 when he finished 10th in the championship with 18 points.
The Qatar Team led Jay Price is also hoping better luck as well as the American driver from New Orleans struggled in Doha last year qualifying well in 4th place despite crashing on his “Shootout” qualifying lap only to fail to finish at the first race while doing a bit better in the second event qualifying and finishing in 5th position.
Jay will have two new rookie drivers on the three boat Qatar squad joining him will be Ahmed Al Fayyad and Yousef Al Khulifi both locals on a quick learning curve coming over from the F2000 ranks this season.
Another driver to join from the F2000 ranks will be Latvian star Uvis Slakteris as the “Rocketman from Riga” puts his skills together with the F1 Team Sweden efforts along with rising star Jonas Andersson of Sweden and veteran French driver Philippe Tourre making his 2nd year start in F1 racing.
XPV Racing featuring the two brothers of Bob and David Trask had another close call even before the event took place as they awaited one of their new boats that arrived late this afternoon. Both drivers from Australia are hoping to get back into 2006 form when both finished in the top-7 in drivers points at seasons end. Both Bob and David have had top-5 performances here in Doha before and would like to reach the podium this time around.
The multi-national starting grid will start action on the Arabian Gulf tomorrow morning starting with free practice at 10:30 followed by time trails at 13:00 and 14:45. The top-6 will move onto the all important Top-6 “Shootout” for pole position at 16:00.
The opening round of the 2008 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating will officially take place at 16:00 on Saturday the 29th of March. It can be followed on the internet lap by lap by going to www.f1boat.com
