ROGGIERO CAPTURES 2^ND STRAIGHT POLE !
CAPPELLINI’S QUICK TIME RULED ILLEGAL!

Riga, Latvia (2^ND June) — Italian Guido Cappellini thought he had taken his 2^nd straight pole position in Latvia and his 2^nd pole position of the season, but his path around the course was ruled illegal by the race director and thus had his 46.25 second lap tossed out handing fellow Italian Massimo Roggiero his 2^nd straight pole of the 2001 campaign on the U.I.M. F1 World Championship tour.

Cappellini, currently on top of the world championship table with 40 points and two wins in the season, swung his boat wide coming off the north end of the course trying to gage a speed advantage leading onto the straightaway on his first of two qualifying laps on the 7-pin 2 kilometer course on the Daugava River. The native of Como, Italy elected not to take a 2^nd lap thinking he had the pole by almost 2 seconds on 2^nd place Roggiero but was thus relegated to 6^th place on the grid for tomorrows Grand Prix of Latvia because of the illegal run.

Roggiero, who actually did the same as Cappellini on his first qualifying "flyer", had his 48.12 time thrown out. But because the head of the Baba Racing team did a 2^nd lap his 48.11 was counted and thus took the pole with a speed of 140.30 kph. For Roggiero, it was his 8^th career pole and it hoping to pick up his first win since Stresa, Italy in 1998.

Current World Champion Scott Gillman of Basalt, Colorado USA will start 2^nd with a speed of 137.61 kph and a time of 49.05 thus digging himself out of a massive hole after barrel rolling his Burgess boat in turn one at the start of the first qualifying session and forcing him to play catch up the rest of the afternoon. Gillman wasn’t alone as the courses tricky corner would also claim three other drivers during the day starting with Swedish driver Jari Honkala who will not race tomorrow with boat damage to massive to fix.

Finnish star Sami Selio had his Exide Lutha machine go over in a big way in the first corner also in the session but will start 20^th, while Cappellini’s teammate on the Assicom Team Yutaka Sugihara snap rolled in turn one of the second session the first accident for him since 1993 and dispite this will start 9^th.

The current World Champion Gillman, the lead driver of the Emirates Team, needs to do what he did here last year, win the race, in order for him to have a good chamce to get back into the championship picture. If he gets his 4^th straight DNF, it will most likely end his dream of a 2^nd straight title.

Argentinian pilot Carlos Maidana put himself in the top 3 for the first time in his career as he put the first Johnson 3 litre powered machine on the podium battling a hole host of fast Mercury 2.5 litre powered boats all around him. Carlos is just one of 2 Johnson powered craft while Mercurry claims other than Selio, the other 23 drivers on the tour.

Maidana’s luck looks like its changing for the better as is Francesco Cantando the Singha Beer backed driver who will start 4^th and hopes to reach the podium again after finishing a fine 2^nd in the last race event in Hungary two weeks ago. Cantando did a 49.54 which was a 136.25 kph lap. He is tied with Roggiero for 3^rd in the title chase at 27 points.

Latvian based Russian pilot Victor Kunitch put the Vivid Racing Team boat in 5^th with a 49.82 second run and hopes to get his first win after leading in Malaysia at the season’s first race doing his best to hold off Cappellini who starts next to him in 6^th.

Fabio Comparato, who finished here last year in 2^nd will start 7^th with a time of 51.46 in his Lindab Nautica Company boat while Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne of the Fuch F1 Team will be 8^th with a 51.69. The native out of La Rochelle, France is 2^nd in the title run with 30 points, ten behind leader Cappellini.

Sugihara’s 9^th place starting position is one better than another young Italian Ivan Torta in the Singha Beer effort with a 51.80. Torta took out a bouy and was later fined for his stopping of practice in the 2^nd session.

Twenty-four drivers from 15 nations will take to the start of the 2^nd annual Grand Prix of Latvia on the 4^th round of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating beginning at 14:30 local time, 11:30 GMT and 7:30 Eastern Daylight Time in North America.