David Trask Has Career Best 2nd ; Comparato 3rd !
LIUZHOU, China – 12th of October, 2008 - American Jay Price pulled off a remarkable victory despite having his favorite propeller break in morning practice to come away with his 2nd victory of the season and now the Qatar Team driver now leads the championship by a comfortable 30 points as his top 5 challengers for the championship all dropped of the 8th Grand Prix of China in Liuzhou at the 5th race of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating.
The driver from New Orleans, Louisiana took command of the race only after a series of events that saw the first four drivers dropping out with the most spectacular coming on the first turn of the race when Italian Guido Cappellini cut across in front of 3rd place qualifier Ahmad Al Hameli of Team Abu Dhabi and caused the young driver to spin out ending his race in front of the rest of the field that was charging into the opening pin.
The Tamoil F1 driver was able to continue before dropping out in 2nd spot after 14 laps which has once again hurti the native of Como, Italy in his chance to win his 10th title in 2008. Meanwhile, Team Abu Dhabi teammate Thani Al Qamzi moved into 2nd chasing leader Sami Selio until he left the race on the 8th lap with trim failure and for the 5th time this season gaining no points.
Selio driving quickly in his Woodstock Red Devil Racing BABA hulled boat had built up over a straight away length lead on the rest of the field before his boat came to a stop on the 39th lap ending his hopes of winning his first event of 2008 as the defending World Champion.
For Jay Price, opportunitiy knocked and he took advantage in a big way. « I know I had a great chance for victory starting in 6th position, » said Price. « We’ve won from 5th and have been on the podium 5 straight races and knew that if I just stayed out of the jump at the start that we would be in a fine position to challenge for a win or a podium after 65 laps. »
The win gives the 30 year racing veteran known as the « Ragin Cagin » 70 points on the season to 40 for Jonas Andersson who crashed out in 4th place on the 43 circuit. Australian driver David Trask came home a career best 2nd place as he and Jay fought for a podium finish for the first half the event before getting passed by Price with a third of the event remaining and finishing 12.34 seconds back of the leader.
« It was a real physcial event but we are really pleased since we are now up to 3rd in the title run with 32 points and I continue to have a good history of racing here in China, » said David. « I look forward to the next event in Shenzhen in two weeks. »
Italian Fabio Comparato had another fine performance starting 9th and finishing 3rd for his 2nd straight podium and has now moved into 4th in the championship with 31 points for the 800 Doctor Team.
French driver Philippe Chiappe of the Atlantic Team had his best of the season in 4th and his 5th straight top-10 place. Tamoil F1 driver Stanislav Kourtsenovsky had a great run to 5th position after starting 13th.
The Qatar Team rookie driver Youssef Al Khulifi came up with his best performance in his rookie season charging from his 14th starting position to 6th, while another rookie Uvis Slakteris of Latvia was 7th.
Bob Trask of Australia came from 17th to finish 8th and rounding out the finishers was Swedish driver Pierre Lundin of the CTIC China Team coming home 9th.
The next round of the championship will be in two weeks as the 6th race of the 2008 season will be back in Shenzhen for the 2nd straight season.
