GILLMAN FASTEST IN PRACTICE IN HUNGARY!

DUNAUJVAROS, HUNGARY (May 20th): American Scott Gillman leads the field of 14 boats in the first of 4 sessions today at the 12th annual Dunaferr Grand Prix of Hungary, the 3rd stop in the UIM F1 World Championship for powerboating.

The native of Basalt, Colorado set a best lap of 37.57 in the sunshine and cool conditions of early morning practice with a speed of 153.31 kph in his ABU DHABI TOURISM DAC/Mercury 2.5 liter powered machine. Gillman, pole sitter in 1997 and winner of the 1998 race here on the Danube, tried 3 different propeller combinations before setting the quick time.  

Defending World Champion and race winner Guido Cappellini of Como, Italy was 2nd quickest with a time of 38.34 seconds for a speed of 150.23 kph in his LASERLINE/CASTROL DAC/Mercury 2.5 liter machine. Cappellini, who has won this race 5 times in his career, only did a handfull of laps before parking the boat back in the paddock.

Young rising Portugese star Duarte Benavente was 3rd quickest in his SINGA BEER BURGESS/Mercury 2.5 liter hull with a 38.84 time and a speed of 148.30 kph on the 1.6 kilometer 2 pin course. Jonathan Jones of Cardigan, Wales was the fastest OMC boat in his Burgess with a 39.00 lap and a speed of 147.69 kph.

His FUCHS/EUROBET machine is expected to go quicker as the day goes on and put a real challenge to the pole. 5th was Francesco Cantando, 2nd in the World Championship with 27 points, while, Philippe Dessertenne was 6th, Hungarian Rudy Mihaldinecz was 7th, Franco Leidi of Italy was 8th, Awad Al Qubaisi was 9th and Brazilian rookie Paul Gaiser rounded out the top 10.

Qualifying session 1 comes up at 14.00 local time with the 2nd session at 16.20 and the top 6 Shootout for pole position at 18.10 local time (12.10) Eastern Daylight Time in North America.