Gillman Looks For 2nd Win And 3 Straight Pole!

LAUSANNE, Switzerland: (30th June, 2002) - Guido Cappellini of Como, Italy returns to the island of Sardinia hoping to “stop the bleeding” of his bad luck on the 2500 meter Grand Prix of the Mediterranean circuit in the inner harbour of the city of Cagliari the 5th stop of the 2002 U.I.M. F1 World Championship tour for powerboating on the 7th of July.

Cappellini, lead driver of the Zepter Team, has won this race twice. His luck however has taken an ugly turn the last two years with two straight DNF’s including a crash while leading the event last season in the early laps. The 42 year-old 18 year veteran is coming off his 42nd career victory in Budapest, Hungary on the 23rd of June and now has won three of the season’s first four events as he leads the championship by 27 points at almost the halfway mark of the campaign.

Chasing him in a brand new boat that was debuted to great success is Scott Gillman of the U.S.A., who finished 2nd to Cappellini in Budapest, despite having just 30 minutes in the Abu Dhabi hulled machine that was shipped just days before to Europe and what was expected to be more testing to be done before its introduction to the tour.

The plans were changed when Gillman’s English Burgess built hull that he raced the last year and one-half was destroyed at the Grand Prix of Finland in Helsinki back on the 16th of June and was forced to make the premature switch to the new boat. It worked out well on the Danube river and now Gillman looks to add to his win total in Cagliari when he won the Grand Prix of the Mediterranean back in 2000 on his way to his 2nd World title. The Colorado resident has finished on the podium all 4 years of the event and also has the last two straight pole positions and would like to take it this year for a pure “hat-trick” of 3 straight.

Italian Fabio Comparto, 2nd in the championship to Cappellini with 33 points, hasn’t had great success in Sardinia with just a pair of 6th’s to his credit. Last year, still recovering from his terrible crash in Sharjah at the end of 2000, came home in 15th place in the sweltering heat. The dominutive pilot from Northeastern Italy has reached the podium once this season and his best finish has been a 2nd in Campione d’ Italia.

Frenchman Philippe Dessertenne is 3rd in the title run with 31 points picking up his first win of his career in Helsinki back on the 16th of June. His other performances have been outside the top 5 and he would love to keep his confidence at a high level with another podium after finishing 3rd a year ago at this same race.

Saudi Arabian driver Laith Pharaon enters this race knowing he can win it. He led a season ago until his power went down to zero on the very last lap losing out on 2nd place and a podium finish after leading much of the race. The University of Southern California graduate who cut his teeth in offshore racing, is coming off a hard get together with Vincenzo Polli and crashing out for the 2nd of his four events this season.

Finnish star Sami Selio is 5th in the championship and is coming off a 5th place finish in Hungary. He will be looking for his first points ever in Sardinia running his 3.0 litre Johnson powered machine.

Meanwhile, young Italian Ivan Torta who finished 6th in the event a season ago, is coming off his first ever podium finish and has looked strong the last two events running up in 3rd in Finland before fading to the 7th position. His confidence will be at an all time high and racing in Italy will help his enthusiasum even more to reach the top three once again.

Massimo Roggiero, teammate to Cappellini on the Zepter Team, was 3rd here in 2000 and has picked up points in three of this seasons first four events including a 3rd in Finland. Massimo has also qualified well her in the inner harbor on the long course with a pair of 3rd place starts in 1999 and 2000.

Francesco Cantando, runner-up in the championship the last two seasons, is struggling this season. He led the first two races only to crash out in the lead in the opener in Portugal, and had mechanical problems in Campione falling back to 7th and the same in Finland finishing 9th. His two DNF’s haven’t helped and he has just 6 points and sits in 13th place in the title run all but giving up this season a chance for his first title. Here is Cagliari he has a 2nd in 2000 and a 4th a year ago, so he is hopeful.

Over 20 drivers from 10 different nations are expected to attend the 5th Annual Grand Prix of the Mediterranean in Cagliari on the 7th of July and the question remains can Cappellini turn around his bad luck or will Gillman, Cantando, Comparato, Dessertenne or Pharaon snap a victory away from the man from Como, Italy and make this race for the title an ever closer contest as we head for the halfway mark of the 2002 campaign. Stay tuned.