PORTIMAO, Portugal – 4th of May, 2008 – In one of the most exciting lap to lap duals in the past decade American Jay Price of the Qatar Team scored a very popular and well earned first ever victory on the U.I.M. F1 World Championship for power boating in front of thousands of race fans on the Arade River at the 10^th Annual Grand Prix of Portugal.

The 49-year old driver from New Orleans, Louisiana came on strong starting 4^th of the dock and charged into 2^nd place after the first few laps and chased down pole-sitter Ahmad Al Hameli of the Abu Dhabi Team as the young driver held the point for three quarters of the 55 lap event until Price worked his way past at the chicane and went on to cruise to a 16 second win.

“I knew from this morning that my set-up was going to work in these calmer conditions and it was just a matter of time until I pressured Ahmad finally getting around him and from there it was just keeping the boat on the right line to the finish,” stated Jay. “Now we know we have a winning package and will work harder to keep the championship lead with this great Qatar group around me. This event sure beats me being home fighting off spring storms back home in Louisiana. I can’t wait for the next two rounds in Finland and Russia next month.”

PORTIMAO, Portugal – 3rd of May, 2008 – Surprise, surprise, Team Abu Dhabi has a new weapon and his name is Ahmad Al Hameli as the young driver from Abu Dhabi came up with a flying lap of a 42.94 second time to take his first ever career pole position and will lead the field of 22 drivers for tomorrow’s 10th Annual Grand Prix of Portugal.

The late afternoon top-6 shootout, that features drivers with the best times in two previous qualifying sessions going solo on the water for two laps each, saw the water conditions change dramatically in the half hour session. The first driver Thani Al Qamzi teammate to Al Hameli struggled to maintain his boat in the rough condition and managed only a 47.20 compared to 15 minutes later when Ahmad took to the course and set his pole sitting time around the 1.66 kilometer 7 pin course on the Arade River.

“My BABA boat ran perfectly in these conditions and I felt very comfortable in my run,” stated the 29 year old. “Now I have to not only beat Guido Cappellini off the dock tomorrow but my teammate Thani as well. We’ll see, I’m very excited about earning my first pole postion today after only 12 race starts.”

PORTIMAO, Portugal – 2nd of May, 2008 – French driver Philippe Dessertenne is going to have a new team mate this weekend with the arrival of Swedish driver Pierre Lundin replacing Peng Lin Wu for this weekend’s 10th Annual Grand Prix of Portugal on the Arade River in lovely Portimao.

“I’m really excited to be back,” stated the 40 year-old driver. “I don’t really know this boat very well since it is not my boat from a year ago, but I feel after a few sessions it hopefully will fit me like a glove.”

The driver who lives just outside Stockholm, finished with an impressive 4th position in last year’s championship with 51 points on the strength of two podium finishes and 4 top-5 finishes in the 6 races he completed last season. He has raced in Portimao three times previous with a 6th place finish last year after two straight failures to finish in 2003 & 2004.

Pierre returned full time a year ago after sitting out most of three seasons before getting back full force with Italian Fabio Comparato in 2007. He is the 1997 F2 European Champion as well as the 1998 F2 World Champion. He is hoping to also run at the next round at the Grand Prix of Finland in Lahti the first weekend of June.