"ITALIAN TOUR" MAY DECIDE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!
AT 1/3 MARK DESSERTENNE IS TOUR’S COMEBACK STORY!

FOR RELEASE: LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (9^th June) — The 1200 year old enclave of Campione on Lake Lugano will be the setting for the start of back to back Italian Grand Prix’s and the start of the second third of the 2001 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating. It’s the first time since 1997 that the tour has stopped off on this little piece of Italy, surrounded by Switzerland, a 45 minute drive north of Milan and a battleground of past world championship deciding battles in the 1990’s.

The first one-third of this season has started off as expected with Italian Guido Cappellini. He has charged up the points table coming from behind after his involvement in a crash in Malaysia saw him heading home with no points. However, with three straight victories, he has moved back into familiar territory leading the championship with 60 points. But don’t go and mail him the trophy just yet. Last season his position was the same as it is now after four events and the best the 5-time World Champion could manage was to finish 3^rd in the title despite his 6 victories at season’s end.

Cappellini’s story is now well known. His luck started to change when first he crashed out in Latvia and again a month later in practice in Poland thereby missing the race. This was sandwiched in between a rare DNF in Sardinia, while a two race ban in Vienna and Sharjah made it a must win in the final round of the 2000 season in Abu Dhabi. His 2^nd wasn’t enough to keep the title from American Scott Gillman his main challenger who went on to take his 2^nd title that he had earned in the 4 years since joining the F1 World Championship in 1997.

So, if anyone knows that early season success doesn’t necessarily mean championships, just ask retired German ace Michael Werner. He had, like Cappellini in 2000, won the first three races only to lose the title to Cappellini at seasons end. Yes, Campione has good memories for Cappellini. He won the last time the tour stopped here in 1997 and a year earlier, despite losing his only race of the season, captured his 4^th title at days end.

The main question for the 2001 season is, who is Cappellini’s main challenger for the title? Well, in the past 4 years it has been American Scott Gillman who has gone one on one with the Italian star. However, despite the native of Los Angeles leading in the pole-award for this season as the fastest qualifier by starting either first or second off the dock in the first four races, the season has been a total mystery so far for the 42 year old. Coming into the third round in Latvia, Gillman had just finished 29 laps and he and Cappellini hadn’t even raced against each other head to head all season to that point. Finally, in Latvia, Gillman got his chance. He moved to the front past pole sitter Roggiero and into the lead after the first few laps. Meanwhile, Cappellini, closed and finally passed him on the 17^th tour while Gillman continued to chase until a right pickle came off just seconds before he crashed out in rough conditions on the 19^th lap trying to close the gap in 2^nd. No points, no boat, no great memories at this stage of this strange season for the Emirates Team lead driver in 2001.

Another challenge has been expected from young Italian Francesco Cantando of the Singha Beer/Waircom Team. For Cantando, 2000 was a breakout season, winning his first 3 races in his F1 career including the final 2 events in the United Arab Emirates and finishing just 2 points behind Gillman for the title. However, the likeable Italian has lost his way a bit in the seasons first four events. The good; finishing twice on the podium with a 2^nd in Hungary and a 3^rd in Malaysia. The ugly; a DNF in Portugal and a 6^th in Latvia. He has plenty of time to try to tie his personal best of 9 podium finishes heading into the 5^th event of the season.

Italian Massimo Roggiero has shown to be swifter this season than ever before with two straight pole positions and leading almost every event this season. His two podiums have moved him into the top 4 in the title chase, but his two DNF’s have also kept him from leading the points table. Like Cantando, the future looks bright for Roggiero this season. Now, his next goal is to defeat Cappellini in a head to head match-up to prove he’s a viable contestant for the world title. This is the season everyone expects that to happen.

The biggest surprise and the main challenger so far this season to Cappellini is from Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne. Coming off his best career finish with a 2^nd in Latvia and four top 4 finishes this season, the 39 year old from France’s West Coast has shown that his switch back to Mercury 2.5 litre power has proved he can run consistently and quickly with renewed confidence. His great restart charge to the front in Latvia was his first lead in a race since he did the same in Abu Dhabi in 1999. Dessertenne has to continue to put pressure on Cappellini knowing he doesn’t need to win to take the title, just have the consistency that has him within 15 points of the Italian.

Saudi Arabian driver Laith Pharaon is continuing his learning curve. He won his first time out this season in Malaysia and led the points chase for almost 2 months, and now is living the disappointment of 3 straight DNF’s and falling back to 6^th in the title run with 20 points. Pharaon is no "fly-by-night" competitor and has proven that he will only get more polished as the season goes on. Remember, he has only started 10 F1 races in his career. His aggressive style has won over a lot of fans early this season. He now needs to cut down on the little miscues that separate a world champion from a contender.

The 5^th round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship takes place Sunday, June 17^th and then moves on 2 weeks later to Cagliari, Sardinia on the 31^st. At this mid-way point of the season we shall see if the pressure is on Cappellini the Italian in front of his home crowd to do well, or on his competitors who know they must do well or fall victim to Cappellini’s early continued success.

NOTES & GOSSIP: Alright, so you think you know everything about everyone on the tour? Well, before we begin the Notes and Gossip column, here’s your "sports brain teaser"… . the answer can be found at the bottom of the page, so are you ready?….Which driver on the tour attended the University of Southern California? Think carefully before answering…..

Who says this isn’t a global society? Alright, this is going to take some explaining so bear with me….First off, we welcome two new drivers who joined the tour in Latvia, Swedish driver Christian Jansson and Finnish driver Michael Weckstrom.

OK, here’s where it gets fun…Weckstrom is actually part of Finland’s 6% population that’s Swedish. …Swedish driver Jari Honkala is actually Finnish…Danish driver Gert Ladefoged actually lives in Italy and what’s a Jansson doing with a Mercury engine….? Oh, it doesn’t stop here…. The Russian Kunitch is racing for Latvia, the Italian Cappellini once raced for Monaco and Agentinian Maidana speaks the "kings English" better than members of the Royal family…. What happened to the good old days when a Swede was a Swede and a Norweigan was well, Norge? Right, Goran Karlof and Frode Sundsdal….By the way, is ex-Swedish driver Thomas Ericcson still living in the UK?….

It was another great event in Riga that lead to another podium finish for Victor Kunitch who raced for the Latvian Vivid Team and finished 3^rd ….Now a year ago he also finished on the podium or so he thought, until his engine was ruled illegal after the ceremony was concluded…Thus with Kunitch again 3^rd this season and heading to the podium in front of 3,000 screaming Latvian fans promoter Nicolo Di San Germano was heard asking Victor just before getting on stage, "Is the engine ‘good’ this year?"….

How many powerboat racers have had books written about them? Well, 1992 titlest Fabrizio Bocca celebrating his 10^th Anniversary of the championship season, has and I know there are still a few copies of those books around about your life story. It’s Northern Italy Fabrizio, bring them with you and sell them "while they are hot" and make a few extra lira next weekend….

Scott Gillman’s wife Lori is back in Italy from Colorado and maybe that will be enough to bring her husband some much needed good luck….High water marks for Carlos Maidana’s qualifying performance reaching the podium with a 3^rd place his first ever…and Philippe’s 2^nd place in the race his best ever…

Who’s got the good track record in Campione?….Guido has won two of the last 4….Jones won twice in ’95 & ’96…Gillman has a pole and a 3^rd place finish in his only appearance….Sugihara is back and looking better after getting wet on Saturday he finished a fine 4^th his best since his "unretirement" after ’97…He was 5^th in Campione in ’97….

Asked Scott Gillman the last time he took to the water twice in one weekend and his answer, "Never"…Finland star Pertti Leppala was in Riga showing off his new entertainment vehicle that will be made available for VIP’s at various events….Looks like a money maker to me…And look for some of that money to maybe propel him back on the circuit maybe by the fall season’s events in the UAE…

Patience, our computer "guru" Philippe continues to work on getting streaming video interviews on the web site during race weekends….A birdie said this upcoming event could be the one…A message to Massimo… next weekend is fathers day, it would be good to have your father back on the circuit to continue to bring you good luck especially on Saturday….Rumor has it that Massimo’s new favorite song is from the 1960’s that Wilson Pickett made famous, "I’m a Soul Man", now song to "I’m a Pole Man"…..

Don’t look now but Andy Elliott and Awad Al Quibaisi are having fine starts to their season’s both in the top 10 in points…

Idea travel maestro Eric will be making his first appearance in the paddock this upcoming event while we’ll miss Liliane who won’t be able to attend this next weekend…Brazilian Paul Gaiser went from driver to announcer last race on the TV side and did a fine job as "analyst"….

Birthday’s coming…..Stanislav Kourtsenovsky 14^th of June, 30…Pertti Leppala 19^th of June, 41…Ivan Torta 25^th of June, 26…And now, before we go, the answer of the "brain teaser"….

Who attended the University of Southern California? Laith Pharaon!