JONES' PATIENCE EARNS HIM HIS 4TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!!
1998 HERALDS 3 NEW RACE WINNERS AND 3 EX-CHAMPS IN TITLE CHASE!

Lausanne, Switzerland, January 9: The 1998 U.I.M. F1 World Championship proved once again that experience and cunning is the key to capturing the World title, not just being the quickest! Welshman Jonathan Jones saved his best for last, as the 41 year-old from Cardigan, scored his only win of the 9 race season at the final event in Abu Dhabi to win the World Championship.

Jones, who finished with 92 points, reached the podium in 6 of the 9 races with 4 runner-up performances and steered his way to his 4th World Championship and his first since 1991. It was a "Back To The Future" kind of performance, as the father of 3 daughters earned his 12th world title while winning his 14th F1 race of the 1990's. The past season was quite a departure from the previous one, where the Dragon F1 Racing driver crashed 4 times in 1997 while finishing 4th in the World Title under the pressure of big money sponsorship looking for big results. With a smaller budget and a will to return to the top, Jones went almost unnoticed for much of the year, getting consistant results, despite failing to earn a pole position and win until the final round. His speed was never questioned. A flying start to the front in Corfu, Greece in July was vintage Jones and a real eye opener. While his charge to the front in Moscow in August most likely would have given him a win, until a mishap with Italian Guido Cappellini, who moved over and then on top of the veteran, later forced his retirement with a hole in his American built Seebold hull.

With the championship won, the always evolving and creative nature of the new World Champion is constantly in evidence. Now during the off season, Jonathan is currently working on finalizing a race in his native Wales for the upcoming summer while working on new sponsorship possibilites. He must also decide whether he'll be driving again his Abu Dhabi race winning English Burgess hull or the American Seebold design that he used for 8 of the 9 events. Either way, Jones will be back for another year, hoping to finish out the decade with his 3rd campionship of the 90's!

As Jones was celebrating in Abu Dhabi, a numbness was seen on the faces of two ex-World Champion's including 4-Time World Title holder Guido Cappellini of Como, Italy who was looking for his 5th title in the last 6 seasons at the years final round. All Cappellini needed to do was to finish no worse than 3rd at the last race to take the title. With 14 weeks to prepare, all bets were on the Northern Italian pilot. However, titles aren't won on paper and Cappellini who had a" Jeckle and Hyde" kind of season, showing brilliance at times, and head shaking mistakes at other moments, just didn't have the consistancy to win for another time for his Laserline DAC Racing team.

Cappellini looked like a lock to win the title for another time thru the first half of the season with 3 wins after the first 5 events. The 39 year-old pilot had a leading 5 pole positions, reaching the podium 4 times but killing his championship hopes were the 4 DNF's at season's end.

The other ex-Champion who had a real chance of winning the title in 1998 was last season's World Title holder Amercian Scott Gillman of Basalt, Colorado. The 3-time U.S. hi-points champ, had his 3 year Championship win streak come to an end with a mixture of results that were puzzling even to the native Californian. The formula for success was not a good receipt as Gillman joined the series and started the season at the last possible moment with no testing time. On top of this problem, he entered the season with a well worn 4 year old boat that should have been in a museum rather than battling for a title. But a combination of 3 crashes, 5 DNF's and a penalty for one false start, would have doomed the average driver. However, the one-time Motocross champion was in the lead and just 7 laps from the end of the final race of the season and the World Championshipin his hands, when his engine gave up for the first time this year ending his hopes for his 3rd win of the year and the title for the Rainbow Belco Avia Racing team. When the water dried off his boat for the final time of 1998, Gillman had finished with 67 points and 4th in title hunt and ready to do better in 1999.

An Italian who scored more points than anyone in the last half of the season scoring his first ever win in the process was Massimo Roggiero teammate to Cappellini in the Laserline DAC Racing team. For the Varese, Italy driver the 6th round in Stresa ended 3 years of frustration in looking for a win on the F1 tour. The 34 year old one time S850 champion, picked up 56 points in the last 5 events after capturing only 13 in the first four races. Roggiero finished the season with 3 podiums, 3 DNF's and 3rd in the championship with 69 points.

Finland's Pertti Leppala despite finishing in a 5th place tie in the title run with 51points after being the runner-up in the title the last 2 straight season's, proved that 1998 really was a break-out year for the native of Helsinki. The lead driver of the Star Racing Chesterfield-Kodak-Carillo effort was another driver who broke through into the win column with a great performance in Moscow in August. The one time World Ski Speed champion had a pair of poles, but had 3 DNF's and a disqualification losing a victory in St. Petersburg that masked his real efforts in 1998. The 38 year-old pilot will be ready to continue his success and more wins in 1999.

Tieing for 5th place in the World Championship was young Italian Francesco Cantando who had 2 podiums and five top-5 finishes during the season. The native of Milan, who raced with the Waircom-Singha Beer Racing team, had a busy time of it sharing the team with Swede Thomas Ericsson 14th in the title with 20 points, Italian Franco Leidi 16th in the championship with 13 points and Norway rookie Frode Sundsdal who finished in a tie for 20th with 4 points. The busy Waircom group also welcomed Austrialian Craig Bailey who raced to a 6th place finish in Abu Dhabi at season's end. Cantando had his best day in May when he finished 2nd to Gillman in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Italian Fabrizio Bocca welcomed American Gillman for a 2nd year on the Rainbow Belco Avia Racing team and the 1992 World Champion came on strong at season's end with 47 points and 7th in the world standings. Bocca, who took podiums in 2 of the last 4 events had a season best 2nd in Moscow while coming close to capturing his first win since Chalon in 1993. The full season with the DAC hull seemed to settle the one time F3 World Champion as he proved to be a strong charger from mid-field all season long.

Swedish pilot Goran Karloff scored probably the season's most popular win at the Finnish Grand Prix in June getting his first victory on the F1 tour since his arrival in 1991. The one-time F4 European title holder, was in the title chase for the first half of the season with a 3rd in France and his win in Tempare. But a disasterous last half of the season saw only 1 more point in the last 5 events as he finished 8th in the title hunt and 33 points. Goran is another of the "new winners" in this sport and will be looking to bring the Baba Racing DAC hull back to the winners circle in 1999.

Rookie-of-the-Year went to the youngest driver on the tour, Finland's Sami Selio of the Star Racing Chesterfield-Kodak-Carillo team. Selio joined Leppala's effort in the season's 4th event in France after Mexican driver Xavier Amtmann showed a great effort at the season's first event in Sardinia with an 8th, and Russian pilot Victor Kounitch getting a 7th in St. Petersburg. Selio's 4th place finish at the final round in Abu Dhabi culminated a great season with 4 top 10 finishes in just 6 starts for 30 points at season's end and a 9th in the title.

Argentinian pilot Carlos Maidana may write a book about his hurtles he faced as the season went on in 1998. Despite losing a race rig due to an accident; making adjustments to his crew; switching boat hulls in mid-season and having 3 DNF's and 1 failed start; the F2 British and European Super League Champion of 1994, saved his best for last and set a mark for the upcoming campaign as he came home 3rd in Abu Dhabi to put the Sprint Racing Texaco Havoline-Stena Bulk effort on the podium for the first time in 1998. Carlos, always a good qualifier, showed great speed during the races while rounding out the top 10 in the championship with 28 points and should be a driver who could finish in the top 5 for the upcoming season.

French pilot Philippe Dessertenne led the two boat Fuchs Racing effort with an 11th place in the title run with 24 points after 2 top-5 and 3 top-10 finishes. Dessertenne, who started strong with a podium at St. Petersburg in May scored points in 3 of the first five races but failed to finish in the top 10 for the remainder of the season. His teammate Franck Revert of Rouen, France a rookie from the S3000 ranks, started slowly, but finished with 3 top 10 finishes in his last for races including a 7th in Abu Dhabi. English veteran Andy Elliott was 12th in the title chase with 21 points after putting on a great effort despite being underfinanced in 1998 with his World Duty Free ACE Racing team. Elliott on a shoestring budget, reached down and surprised a lot of experts by qualifying a well deserved 3rd late in the season in Hungary. The 29 year racing veteran who finished 2nd in the World title in 1990, had 6 top-10 finishes this year and was a real fan delight watching him do his characteristc charge from the back of the field towards the front.

Hugarian rookie Rudy Mihaldinez of the Dragon Racing team became a full-time driver after spending many years being the lead driver in the F3 World Championship ranks. Rudy's season reached a low when he had a violent crash in Greece and missed the next event in Stresa. Rudy's 3 finishes were all 5ths, two in Russia and one in Finland.

Italian Cipriano Lambri of the Baba Racing team was 15th with 18 points while finishing in the top 10 in 5 of the season's 6 first events. Russian driver Andrey Bernitsin of the Sprint Racing Texaco Havoline-Stena Bulk finished in the top-10 in 2 of the season's last 3 events. Yugoslavian/Swiss pilot Alex Radovanovic of the Interleo-Eurobet-JAT ACE Racing team joined the circus in France and battled all season with a pair of 13th's in France and Finland to finish 24th in the title. Italian Fabio Comparato made a great impression his first time out qualifying 6th in Abu Dhabi and finishing 8th. Fellow countryman and veteran Chicco Vidoli made a few appearances with the Rainbow Belco Avia Racing team debuting their new boat that should be making a real effort for 1998.

Close to 30 drivers from 15 different nations saw action in the 9 race series that took place on two different continents. 1998 will long be remembered as a year of surprises with 3 ex-World Champions battling for the title, while consistancy and a great game plan saw to it that a 41 year-old driver from Cardigan, Wales put himself in a position to come "Back-to-the-Future" while capturing his 4th World title in his 25th year of racing. The battle is set to start once again the first weekend of May in Portugal!