Season 1993
If it heralded anything, the 1993 UIM World Formula One drivers championship lifted the veil on the next generation of high-tech racing catamarans and drivers, and underlined the continuing frailty of man in what is still a potentially hostile environment. The action started in Thailand in December 1992.
Coming straight from Singapore, where Fabrizio Bocca had been crowned and the American Billy Seebold had dominated, Thailand's first ever F1 Grand Prix drew twenty-six drivers from eight countries to the somewhat unlikely location of the naval base at Sattahip Bay.
The most notable change in race administration for the 1993 series was in a revised points structure, in which the top fifteen finishers in every race scored points and the winner now took 20 points for his pains.
First pole position of the year fell to Steve Kerton in the Cappelle/Lynx, with new champion Bocca third but when the lights showed green, it was the Japanese driver, Tadaaki Ishikawa who powered away until John Hill's nose-dive in the rough brought a recall.
On the re-start it was local Team Ziggy/Castrol driver Naowarat Saswadee who led from Kerton, until he too fell victim to the conditions and rolled and on the third start, Bocca took the lead but was harried by Kerton and the improving Guido Cappellini until Mike Zamparelli's flip stopped proceedings again.
Bocca may have thought that it was his day again as he came out in front on the fourth start but as he and Kerton slipped hack and the phalanx of Swedes, Pelle Brolin, Lennart Strom, Bertil Wik and Thomas Ericksson moved up, it was Cappellini who came through to take his first win of the year in the Laserline/DAC and put down his marker for the season ahead.
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| Guido Cappellini from Como, Italy
had spent a young lifetime in pursuit of one of powerboat racing's
top accolades. 1993 was the year he landed the F1 prize. Photo: Chris Davies |
Four months later, the scene had changed to the Arabian Gulf, when the Emirate state of Abu Dhabi hosted its first Formula One event but the euphoria surrounding the meeting was clouded by the death of John Hill and the protests which followed.
Abu Dhabi also marked the arrival on the Fl. circuit of Cappellini's new FRP composite DAC hull, with its technical refinements and active telemetry He promptly christened the boat with pole position, chased by the highly experienced American licence holder Felix Serralles, who had changed disciplines from offshore to circuit but retained his Dubai Victory Team backing.
As the heat haze masked the Corniche, the racing was as humid as the conditions, with Michael Werner, Cappellini, Thailand's Sawasdee and Andy Elliot all to the fore. As Werner took the lead on Lap 29 in his Abu Dhabi Tourist Club/Burgess from Cappellini, Ericksson got it very wrong on the pit turn and in the seconds that followed, John Hill was seen to flip at the other end of the course.
In the events that followed, one of the Osprey rescue boats was holed and with Hill on his way to intensive care, the organisers curtailed proceedings with less than two-thirds of the race completed. John Hill was gone after 30 years of racing, Werner was penalised one lap for hitting a turn buoy, Cappellini won from Serralles and only half points were awarded.
Still smarting from his experience in the Gulf, Werner came hack with a vengeance when the series reached Milan in May, narrowly missing pole position to Bocca but making up for it most spectacularly when the race got under way by establishing an immediate lead over Bocca and Kerton.
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| Milan's Idroscalo gave German,
Michael Werner his first chance to put maximum points on the board
when the LiquiMoly/Sperotto Rimar driver's brilliance paid off. Photo: Chris Davies |
Peter Ericksson rolled on Lap 9 without personal damage, the hard charging and rapidly improving Saswadee blew over backwards after the re-start and at the third try, Werner led but was overhauled and overtaken by Bocca, who held the field at bay until mechanical problems took him out on Lap 44. Thereafter it was Werner's day.
In Chalon sur Saone for the French Grand Prix, practice sessions proved unlucky for the Thai Ziggy Team when accidents to both Pichet Sethura and Phil Duggan forced them to withdraw and with Cappellini on pole again, Bocca led Werner, Kerton and Goran Karlof until Zamparelli submarined and the race was stopped.
Werner took the re-start but as Dene Stallard retired with accidental damage, Bocca powered through to take the race from the consistent Cappellini, the persistent Werner, Steve Kerton, Karlof and the improving Jonathan Jones but Cappellini's 64 points was beginning to look useful approaching the mid-point.
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|
1992 World Champion, Fabrizio Bocca, took a long time to hit
previous form and it was only at Chalon that he began to make
his challenge |
When the drivers reached Cardiff, the new venue provided an interesting if tight circuit which the drivers liked immediately but a format of qualifying heats to decide the top twelve positions on pole and a qualifying race to decide the last three starters which they liked rather less.
Twenty-two boats from eight countries contesting a fifteen place grid was always likely to produce some spectacular racing but for Duggan and Bocca, a argument with a very solid turn mark and a potentially devastating barrel roll respectively left them as spectators for the weekend.
The first 25 Lap heat was dominated by the Swede, Goran Karlof, who showed a clean transom to Cappellini and did enough to capture pole position while the second heat went to the improving Werner from British drivers Dene Stallard and Kerton but it was the qualifying race which produced Andy Elliot and Singha Beer driver, Thomas Ericksson as the best of the rest, the Swede particularly impressive after a bad start.
When the drivers were signalled away for the start of the British Grand Prix passed by the Italian, Karlof rolled on Lap 23 and at roughly the same time, Stallard and Sawasdee sustained damage in a clash of boats.
Uncharacteristically Cappellini was delayed on the re-start letting Werner get away to lead Kerton and newcomer, Mark Rolls in the Lakeside Services Lynx but Kerton retired with mechanical problems and though Cappellini charged after the leaders, could not improve on third place, behind the hard driving Werner and Rolls.
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| Swedish driver Pelle Brolin took
a valuable eleven points and finish fifth in the British Grand Prix
at Cardiff in his Seiko/Molgaard. Photo: JBS |
If the Welshman Jon Jones had promised much but delivered little on his waters in Cardiff, he more than redressed the balance when the fleet moved south to Coma and he led for all but seven laps in the mast taxing rough conditions and moved up to third in the world placings for his efforts.
The twenty-nine entries were reduced to twenty-five by a qualifying heat and with Cappellini on pole, it was Ishikawa in his new Burgess who led away from the lights, ahead of Jones, Team Ziggy/Castrol driver Khunjeng Suchart and Werner but Jones grasped the lead after five laps and seemed uncatchable.
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| Sponsored by his employers, Midland
Bank, Welsh television station S4C and Castrol, Jonathan Jones began
his season's charge with a win on Como. Photo: JBS |
Kerton and Duggan were pushing hard in the mid-field when Suchart and Cappellini came together and on the re-start, it was Jones again in the lead, from the repaired DAC of Cappellini and the consistent Werner but it was always the Welshman's day
The Hungarian town of Dunaujvaros hosted the seventh round of the 1993 championship and again it was Jones who showed early by taking pole but in the cauldron of intense heat it was Werner who led from the start, pushed all the way by Jones in the S4CTV- Midland Bank/Burgess.
Suchart brake his steering and rolled out of contention and at the re-start it was local driver Gyorgy Csepregi who led the way but he was repeatedly attacked by Jones, Duggan, Cappellini, Andersson and Karlof and slipped back down the field. Jones' run was stopped on Lap 44 but by then, Cappellini had siezed his opportunity and powered to another win and an unassailable points lead in the UIM championship.
It is generally unusual far championships to use one venue more than once in any season but in 1993, both Thailand and Abu Dhabi hosted two races each. It was a measure of the widening interest in powerboat racing and enhancing skills of their drivers that Thailand's Team Ziggy/Castrol entered six boats for the penultimate race, in Sattahip Bay
Jones took pole position and followed Werner off the line but on turn one, the German's engine detached itself and he was out of the running. The first re-start saw Jones in front but pursued hard by Ishikawa, Suchart, Cappellini and the Australian, Craig Bailey in his Ansett Airlines/Burgess, until he bar-rolled out whilst avoiding a back-marker.
The Welshman got it right again on the second re-start, and on the third, after Saswadee flipped spectacularly but the final chase was brightened by local drivers Phinsanoh Suthin and Suchart and though Bocca and Cappellini tried hard, Jones took another twenty points far victory and another Waterford crystal globe.
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| Born in Puerto Rico, licensed in
America but mostly resident in Dubai, the quiet and likeable Felix
Serralles brought his Seebold to the Gulf and took top honours in
the penultimate round of the championship. Photo: JBS |
The Abu Dhabi International Marine Club hosted the last round of the 1993 championship and saw twenty-nine boats from ten countries on the corniche for what produced the newly crowned Cappellini's only failure of the year and same new names on the podium.
Cappellini's pole was typical of his season but in the race itself it was Werner, Jones, Peter Ericksson and Ishikawa who ran far the lead, in front of HH Sheik Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nayan and thousands of spectators.
Werner failed after ten laps and Jones looked good but he looked even better after the demise of the Italian, until he came under intense pressure from Ishikawa and the improving American and Dubai driver, Felix Serralles, who took the lead within eight laps of the flag and was never headed in his Victory Team/ Seebold boat.
The year drew to its close underlining high technology and driver consistency as the two most valuable commodities and a worthy winner in Guido Cappellini who demonstrated both of these.
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| Cappellini's Laserline/DAC brought
higher technology to Formula One with sophisticated underwater geometry,
movable ballast and active telemetry, but most of all enjoyed reliability
season-long. Photo: JBS |
| Season 1994 | Season 1992 |
