ABU DHABI – Wednesday, August 17, 2011 – In the closest, most tense voting tallies in the history of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship “Hall of Fame” election, two pillars of the sport of power boat racing, Siegfried “Ziggy” Boettle and Charlie Strang, were officially elected into the sports 2011 “ring of honor”.
The election, was open to race fans around the world having an opportunity to vote on the official website at www.f1h2o.com with the final results giving Ziggy Boettle a 42% tally easily the top vote getter while the battle for the final spot for the Hall of Fame going right down to the final day with Charlie just out-dueling Germany’s Michael Werner by one percentage point. Ziggy and Charlie will join the likes of Renato Molinari, William Seebold, Scott Gillman and Fred Hauenstein Jr. into the history books and will forever be part of the “Hall of Fame” family.
The two men, both of whom make their homes in the Chicago area of the USA, began their influence in the sport long before the UIM F1 H2O tour came into existence back in 1981, will be honored at the season ending banquet in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates on the 16th of December.
Ziggy, who was one of top engineers for Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) for over 40 years, devoted his time to the sport of power boat racing for over three decades be it from local levels in the Chicago area to the international UIM community. In 1996 he became the UIM F1 H2O Technical Commissioner regarding the legalities of all racing drivers throughout a Grand Prix weekend in all aspects of equipment and race engines.
The Gurnee, Illinois resident has served many years with the UIM International Governing body and is currently head of the “Safety Cockpit Committee” on the F1 Committee roundtable as well.
Charlie Strang is one of living legends of the sport. He developed and designed the concept and later started the UIM F1 World Championship for OMC back in 1981. Charlie fell in love with the sport of boat racing after attending the New York Boat Show when he was young.
He started racing in 1937 at the age of 14. After serving for the Army Air Corp in World War II Charlie was involved with early jet aircraft engineering. He taught his theories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) while still being drawn to his first passion of boat racing. This interest eventually steered him over to the business side of the sport and went to work for Carl Kiekhaefer at Mercury Marine. Later making the move to rival OMC.
Charlie has served as President of the APBA (American Powerboat Association) and is currently the Senior Vice President of the USA for the Executive Committee of the UIM. Charlie has received the UIM “Medal of Honor” and the “American Success Award” from ex-President Bush.
Both men are truly deserving of this honor as both visionaries and pioneers of the most exciting and thrilling sport on water, the UIM F1 H2O World Championship for power boating.
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