4 NEW RACE VENUES HI-LITE 1998 RACE CALENDAR!
DRIVER'S LINE-UPS STILL UNDECIDED FOR CHOICE TEAMS!

Lausanne, Switzerland March 19th. The 1998 U.I.M. F1 World Championship is shaping up to be one of the busiest and most exciting seasons in the history of powerboat racing with the announcement of 12 scheduled races on 3 different continents in 9 different countries making up this season's battle for the World title.

Hi-liting the series for 1998 will be 4 new races, beginning with the opening round less than 2 month's away on May 10th in beautiful Cagliari, Sardinia in Italy. Other new exciting stops on the tour will be held in the tour's northernmost stop, Tampere, Finland on June 14th, scenic Stresa, Italy on July 26th and wonderful Graz, Austria on September 6th.

The key to winning this years World Championship, will be the team of drivers that arrives strong and competitive at the start of the season, with almost one-half of the schedule, five races, held in a 8 week period from May 10th to the end of June at Campione in Italy.

The big story right now seems to be, whom those teams will consist of, as drivers continue to hold off showing their hand, as they jockey for positions on where they will race and with what team for 1998. The top 4 drivers in the World Championship of a year ago led by World Title holder, American driver Scott Gillman of Basalt, Colorado, continue to until the very last minute to commit to a team. As for Scott, he wants to situate himself in the right position to regain the World Championship. there are a few key elements that need to be in place if I am to defend the title. I'm excited about the possibilities, but I've learned a lot since arriving in Europe last year, and I want to be in the right spot to do so when the flag drops on the upcoming season The 38 year-old native Californian went on to say, We'll have it all sorted out in the next 10 days and then I can concentrate on racing which is my main goal

For Italian legend Guido Cappellini, winner of the World Title 4 of the last 5 seasons, he is still looking to "lock up" a new team-mate for the first time in 7 years after the departure of retiring Japanese driver Yutaka Sugihara, who was with him for the last 6 seasons in the DAC Racing stable. Considered maybe the best team in the history of the sport, the seat available with Cappellini is the most wanted and rumors abound that it maybe open to the driver who is willing to pay the reportedly $200,000 (3,584,000,000 Italian Lira) for the opportunity to be along side the driver from Como, Italy.

Last years runner-up for the championship, Finland's young star, Pertti Leppala, of Team Europe and 3-time World Champion Jonathan Jones of Cardigan, Wales, 4th in the title run a year ago, are also holding off until the last moment to latch onto team-mates for the 1998 campaign. Both drivers expect to make announcements of plans in the very near future to help set strategy for their title hopes.


While the top 5 drivers in championship from 1997 haven't fully shown their plans, other drivers and teams are locked in and are ready to make their bid for the up coming title chase. Two teams that have made the most noise in the off-season are the French Fuchs effort with star Phillipe Dessertenne, 9th in the title run in 1997, who will team this season with fellow Frenchman Frank Revert who brings his Kodak sponsorship to the team along with his S3000 experience. A team that has made the most progress in the off-season and is ready to start racing is the Texaco Racing entry led by a driver on the rise, Argentinean Carlos Maidana. The driver/manager who now makes his home in England, will have a distinctive Russian flavor to his line-up with two drivers entered from the city of St. Petersburg led by veteran Andre Bernitsyne and part-time entrant Ivan Atamanov who will be making his first efforts in F1 racing. The fellow Russian pilots will have sponsorship from both businesses and the City of St. Petersburg on their English built Burgess hulls for the 1998 season.

The Singha Beer Racing effort led by young upcoming Italian star Francesco Cantando and veteran World Offshore Champion, Swedish driver/manager Thomas Ericsson will race a pair of DAC hulls and hope to show the same strong results that ended on a happy note for 1997. Cantando finished 7th in the title while Ericsson was 15th.

The Baba Racing Team of Swedish veteran Goran Karlof and Italian Cipriano Lambri will be joined for another season while they wait to see who their owner, fellow driver Massimo Roggiero races for in í98. The native of Stockholm, Karlof, finished 6th in the table a year ago and is hoping to continue to be a front runner again this season. Both drivers will run Italian DAC hulls with Karlof again sponsored by International Paint and Lambri by his own company. Fellow Italian Franco Leidi will team a Norwegian driver in their effort with the Mare Magnum Racing entry.

Other teams still finishing the process of finalizing team-mates include Germany's most hailed driver in F1 history Michael Werner, who will once again pilot his MM Power DAC hull. Rainbow Racing's 1992 title holder Fabrizio Bocca, Tetlaw driver Andrew Elliott of England are just part of the remaining drivers still looking to finalize their plans in these last moments prior to what should be the most challenging and exciting season in the history of the U.I.M. F1 World Championship.

Contact: Stephen J. Michael