DRIVER PROTEST UPSETS G.P. OF BULGARIA!
DESSERTENNE WINS BUT NO POINTS AWARDED!!

PLOVDIV, BULGARIA (06th AUGUST): The 8th Round of the 2000 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for powerboating was officially declared null and void after a driver protest forced the promoter to rule that the race would become an exhibition and wouldn’t be declared an official event.

The reason for situation developed when certain pilots believed that the 2-pin 1 kilometer course was, in their opinion, too narrow to be safe and that the depth, which was 2.85 meters deep in the shallowest spots, was not safe enough to hold an official event. Not all pilots agreed, but enough so that after discissuion with U.I.M. officials and promoter Nicolo di San Germano, the 1st Annual Grand Prix of Bulgaria on the Plovdiv Rowing Channel became an exhibition race rather than an official round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship.

The series of meetings went on into middle afternoon and finally it was decided by 8 pilots that they would put on a 35 lap exhibition for the 10’s of thousands of race fans whom were getting their first taste of F1 action in this Eastern European country.

The race turned out to be a great show with pole-sitter from Saturday Massimo Roggiero of Italy who had a time of 34.11 seconds in his Petrobras DAC/Mercury 2.5 litre machine battled with American Scott Gillman in his Adnoc Lubes/National Bank of Abu Dhabi DAC/Mercury 2.5 litre machine as the fans who jumped with excitement as he and Roggiero battled side-by-side lap after lap for the first 8 tours.

Soon Gillman’s teammate, young Abu Dhabi native Awad Al Qubaisi came storming to the front to battle Roggiero as did Argentinian pilot Carlos Maidana in his Texaco Havoline OMC machine as went past all and into the lead.

Gillman dropped out after 18 laps while Maidana, Al Qubaisi and Roggiero battled lap after lap until Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne in his Fuchs/Eurobet Burgess/OMC 3.0 litre boat took over the lead in the final few laps and held off Roggiero and Al Quabaisi who with 4-time World Champion Jonathan Jones made the top 4 within 2 seconds of each other in the end. Dessertenne was overjoyed with the performance of his OMC powerplant and looked forward to the race coming up next weekend in Istanbul, Turkey.

With no points awarded, Cappellini continues to lead and will head to Islanbul, Turkey with 80 points, while his teammate Fabio Comparato will be at 78 and Gillman at 74 in 3rd. The 9th round of the U.I.M F1 World Championship should be a great event with Gillman looking for a repeat. Only time will tell if the recovering Cappellini can stop him in his tracks or if fellow Italian’s Francesco Cantando, Massimo Roggiero or Fabio Comparato came give the American a good run on the tricky circuit with the championship still wide open.