CAPPELLINI TAKES 2ND VICTORY AT CAGLIARI!!
LEPPALA CHARGES TO 2ND; GILLMAN 3RD!

Cagliari, Italy, May 16: Guido Cappellini, the 4-time World Champion loaded with talent, needed a little luck, as he took the 2nd race of the 1999 UIM F1 World Championship and his 2nd in two years here in Sardinia, in front of thousands of his adoring fans beating Finlandās Pertti Leppala by 2.9 seconds and now has 40 points in his chase for this years World title.

The race took a dramatic twist right from the start when the native of Como, Italy who now lives in Monaco stalled at the green flag and immediately fell to 7th place. Current World Champion Jonathan Jones of Cardigan, Wales jumped into the lead chased by Leppala, Italian Massimo Roggiero and American Scott Gillman. Jones, held the point and built up to a 8 second lead with his wooden English built Burgress boat.

The battle behind had Cappellini moving up quickly with Roggiero holding 2nd, Gillman passing Leppala for 3rd only to have Leppala pass him back for and Cappellini moving into 5th. By lap 18 of the 40 lap event, Cappellini had passed Gillman, Roggiero, Leppala to finally pass the World Champion on the 8th and final corner to take the lead. Only a yellow flag and the pace boat coming on the course after Swedish driver Goran Karloff barrell rolled in the final corner on lap 22 did Cappellini feel any heat.

On the restart, into the first turn, Gillman, Jones, Roggiero and Leppala all went for 2nd place with Leppala winning the battle on horsepower, Gillman in 3rd and Roggiero in 4th and Jones fell back to 5th. Thatās the way it finished with only Roggiero falling backwards moving Jones to a 4th place finish.

It was a great finish for Leppala and Gillman as both drivers struggled with power all weekend in their V-6 Mercuryās. Leppala found the problem prior to the start, but Gillman ran a weak motor and was pleased to finish on the podium. Both are now tied for 2nd in World Championship with 27 points.

Italian Fabrizio Bocca was 5th, fellow Italian Fabio Camparato 6th, Argentinian Carlos Maidana 7th, Rudy Mihaldinez 8th , Swede Thomas Ericsson 9th and Englishman Andy Elliott 10th.

Cappellini now has a 13 point lead on the rest of the field and the last time he had won the first two races of any season he won the world title in 1996. Could this be again his year? We will find out in 2 weeks in St. Petersburg, Russia on May 30th.