CANTANDO TAKES FIRST CAREER POLE IN SHARJAH!
GILLMAN 3RD IN CHASE FOR WORLD TITLE!

SHARJAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: (16th NOVEMBER) — After four years of trying, young Italian star Francesco Cantando finally got the pole position he so wanted and at the same time proved to everyone he was still in the hunt for the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating. The lead driver of the Singha F1 Racing Team, set his quick time on the second of two laps in the late afternoon shootout beating everyone with a 48.74 second lap around the 5 turn 2.0 kilometer course.

Cantando 's time of 151.41 kph was one of the quickest of the season as he held off the charge of 4 time World Champion Jonathan Jones in his Fuchs/Eurobet Burgess/OMC 3 litre engined craft who had been quickest coming into the final quilifying event of the day. Jones, who was .15 of a second slower than Cantando, did his best looking for his first pole of the year in the ever improving OMC powerplant.

Starting 3rd off the grid will be 1997 World Champion Scott Gillman of Basalt, Colorado who is just 4 points back of suspended world points leader Gudio Cappellini of Como, Italy. Cappellini, who is sitting out his 2nd of two races for distroying the timing equipment at the Bulgarian Grand Prix. Cappellini sits out waiting and hoping at the same time that Gillman doesn’t cut into his 120-116 lead. The 3 time PROP American F1 champion is the lead driver of the Emirates Team and could be feeling pressure to do well in front of the home spectators tomorrow along the banks of the Khalid lagoon.

Petrobras pilot Massimo Roggiero will start 4th off the dock looking for his first win of the season after a time of 49.85 and his 5th top 5 qualifying effort of the season. Next up will be another Italian Fabio Comparato, teammate to Cappellini in the Laserline/Castrol DAC Racing effort, with a time of 49.87 and still in the hunt for the World Title just 15 points behind Cappellini with 2 races to go. Comparato, needs to win twice to have any chance of the title.

Starting 6th will be favorite son Awad Al Qubaisi from Abu Dhabi with his best qualifying effort of the season and his first career "shootout" with a qualifying effort of 50.12 and a speed of 147.24 kph. The 2nd year driver on the Emirates Team is hoping to finish ahead of his best effort in racing history which was a 4th in Hungary earlier this year.

Latvian pilot Victor Kunitch with the Kalciems Racing Team will start 7th after a time of 52.30 while Saudi Arabian driver Laith Pharon in the Hyatt Hotels and Resorts DAC ended his racing day blowing over in a spectacular way chasing the shootout position and finishing with a time of 52.43 will begin in the 8th spot.

Finnish star Sami Selio reached the top 10 for the 2nd straight race with a time of 53.02 in his Ghanem Al Suwaidi DAC. Rounding out the top 10 will be Swedish rookie Jari Honkala with a respectable 53.04 effort.

Can Cantando win his first and stay in the hunt for the World title going into next weeks final round in Abu Dhabi or will Gillman reach the podium forcing Cappellini to win when he returns to the capital city of the U.A.E. next week for the title. The drama will be played out tomorrow when 22 drivers from 13 nations take on to the 2 kilometer 5 pin course at the Grand Prix of Sharjah

Race time will be 15:30 local time, 11:30 GMT and 6:30 Eastern Standard Time in North America..