GILLMAN TAKES CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD WITH WIN IN CHINA!
AMERICAN'S 1-2 WITH PRICE 2ND AND DAVID TRASK FROM 'OZ 3RD!

CHONGZHOU, China - 5th of October – The championship picture for the 2006 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating took a drastic turn when Emirates Team driver Scott Gillman took first place not only on the race course but in the championship with his 22nd career victory now with 50 points with just two races to go in the season both at his home in the United Arab Emirates the first two weeks of December.

The native of Los Angeles, California came home number one in front of a sold out, built for racing ampitheatre on the Wenjing River, which saw all 32,000 spectators on their feet for most of the 55 laps around the 1.975 kilometer course with many more thousands watching on the surrounding hillsides taking in the action.

Italian Guido Cappellini of the Tamoil Team lead for the first third of the race from pole position until he made a major mistake on the circuits final pin. With Gillman chasing him down in the rist of the race, he turned sharply and destroyed the bouy. From that point on the driver from Como, knew he was going to be penalized a lap and would eventually lose his championship lead and finish in 6th place.

“We are really excited that we have put the Emirates Team back in first place in the championship,” stated Scott. “Now we head back home knowing we have to hold on to this lead and hopefully take the title for the 4th time but there is still a long way to go before then.”

Scott's teammate Thani Al Qamzi, starting 3rd in the race and 2nd in the championship had a heart breaking stoppage on the seventh lap as the native of Abu Dhabi had his propeller break ending his afternoon while in 2nd place behind Cappellini and ahead of Gillman.

While one American listened to the national antheum on the top step of the podium, another charished his first time to the podium making it the first USA 1-2 finish in 12 years since the 1994 race in Abu Dhabi. Jay Price, the long time F2 racer who joined the F1 Qatar Team at the Grand Prix of Portugal finished a fine 2nd in only his 5th career F1 start.

“We worked hard all weekend to get this finish and we had just enough to get to the finish line as we ran out of fuel again just as we crossed the stripe,” stated the native of New Orleans, Louisiana. “Now we head back to the Middle East and get ready to race at two venues that I am very familiar with and I am excited about keeping the Qatar Team on top.”

Third, and a driver who was relishing first time success was Australian David Trask as his XPV Racing effort finished 3rd and 5th with his older brother Bob charging up from 19th place at the start.
“We are truly going to celebrate this one,” stated David. “We all worked hard to put this together this season and we're only getting better as the races continue throughout 2006.”

England's Andy Elliott was another driver who had a great day with a 4th place finish after starting in 11th off the dock and came less than four seconds from reaching his 2nd podium in 8 races in the Atlantic Team Dragon boat built in Wales. He struggles paid off after having as many as 9 reported adjustments to his set-up in two days of racing.

Seventh was French driver Philippe Chiappe of the Charente Maritime Team who put together one of his career best weekends after starting a fine 12th position off the dock while his teammate Philippe Dessertenne struggled in 9th place at the finish after starting ninth.

Eighth was young German driver Fabian Kalsow of the Tamoil Team, who came charging up from 19th position to 8th in the race only to have a collision with Luigi Roberto thus dropping down two more places before battling back to a fine 8th place at days end in his ADAC/Red Bull sponsored DAC hull.

Finish driver Sami Selio in the Red Devil sponsored BABA boat continued to have the worst luck this season as he headed to a certain podium finish when with less than three laps to go his engine started letting go giving up 2nd place and eventually taking a very unsatisfying 10th for the driver who a year ago was runner-up in the championship. His teammate Julius Leysen went out early on the third lap finally being classified 20th at days end.

Chinese driver Lin Wu Peng was up to 13th place when he experienced problems finally giving up with 20 laps completed in front of thousands of appreciative fans.

Francesco Cantando and his teammate Massimiliano Moreschi also had bad luck in the Singha Team when Cantando went out early on the 10th lap with engine malodies and “Max” with a broken throttle cable stopping him 35 laps into the event.

So 22 drivers from four different continents came to Southwest China for the first time and now with two races to go in the 2006 championship Emirates driver American Scott Gillman has once again gone ahead in the title race with 50 points followed by his 17 year rival Guido Cappellini of Italy just 5 points back as the series heads to the United Arab Emirates in early December for back to back events in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

The championship is once again going to the final two events, stay tuned.

For additional information, interviews or video footage please contact:

Philippe Stiernon
Press Officer
Philippe@f1boat.com