Molinari, Seebold And Van Der Velden To Be Honored!

LAUSANNE, Switzerland: (12th of May) – For the first time in many years, three living legends in the sport of powerboat racing will be together next weekend in Campione d' Italia, Italy for the 2nd Round of the 2002 U.I.M. F1 World Championship for powerboating event from the 17th thru the 19th of May.

Italian hero Renato Molinari, American legend Bill Seebold and the "Flying Dutchman" Cees Van der Velden part of Mercury Marine's famous "Black Angels" Race Team of 1971 will be together again as they take in the flavor of one of maritimes most famous racing spot on Lake Lugano, Campione d' Italia for this years F1 Grand Prix.

For Molinari, it's a short drive down the road from his father Angelo's race shop that introduced the world to a single hull catamaran that he first designed in the early 1960's. The 3-Time World Champion in F1 who retired in the mid-1980's, won 18 different World Titles in various classes since his start in 1964. Renato, who learned racing from his father and his cousin Cesare Scotti, also won 11 European Titles, 15 Italian Championships and set 12 World Speed records. His most famous victories were his 4 wins at the 24 Hour event in Rouen, 4 wins at the Paris 6-Hour race and two wins each at the Lake Havasu and Parker Enduro Classics in the USA.

The 56 year-old native of Como, was brought into the sport by his father Angelo and his late cousin Cesare Scotti who were both successful boat builders and later bitter rivals until Cesare's untimely death at the 1974 6-Hour event in Paris. Scotti, won his first World Championship in the Stock Class event at Campione d' Italia at the age of 20 in 1956. Molinari and Scotti supplied most of race boats on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 1970's and Team Mercury was using Molinari boats as their "official hull" at the time. Renato has gone on to be a successful propeller maker and designer since retirement.

Bill Seebold, the winningest driver in powerboat racing history, was born into racing with his father Bill, Sr. better known as "Grandpa" who began racing on the Mississippi River near his St. Louis, Missouri home in 1938. Winning his first race at the age of 11 in the 5-horsepower stock class in 1952, "Mr. Bill" went on to win over 900 races in his 46 year career. He ended his lifelong love in style winning the PROP F1 title in his final season of racing in 1997 at the age of 57 beating drivers that season who were young enough to be his sons. Two of them were his sons.

Bill was honored by being inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999 in recognition of his 69 World and National Titles. He won his first title in 1958 and later his career really took off when he became a member of the famous Team Mercury squad in 1970. His most memorable wins were his title as "Mr. Bristol" winning the Duke of York Trophy in England 6-times, the Paris 6-Hours, a 7-time Winner of North America's most famous event, the St. Louis Grand Prix. He also won 6 UIM championships from 1975 to 1990. He also won the FONDA championship in 1981, 1987 along with the International Outboard Grand Prix series in 1989, 1993 and 1994.

Cees Van der Velden, the native of Nistelrode, Holland was another racing hero in the 1970's until his retirement in September of 1989 in Beaumont, Texas. He entered the sport later than his rivals, starting at the age of 23 in 1966 in the V-hull 70 class. In his 24 years of racing, Cees won 7 World Championship titles missing an 8th world crown because of an accident in 1976. Along with those titles he also won several times European and Dutch Championships in F1 and F2.

The original "Flying Dutchman" joined the catamaran class in 1970 and in just two seasons won his first World Title defeating teammate Renato Molinari in Molinari's own hull. After racing with Team Mercury for four years, he jumped ship as he couldn't pass up an offer to join the OMC Team in the winter1974. He could now race and design his own boats. Prior to that, he and Seebold teamed up to win the Paris 6-Hour and the Parker Enduro events in the summer of 1974.

Van der Veldon won the ON titles in 1974, 1975 and 1979 championships, while winning the the Continental ON titles in 1974, 1976, 1978 and 1979. He also captured the Continental OZ title in 1977, 1978, 1980 and 1981.

Cees went out in style winning his final race of his career in Beaumont, Texas defeating 3 World Champions including Bill Seebold who was there introducing Mercury's new 2.5 litre engine at the end of the 1989 season. Since that time, Cees has dedicated his time building Veldon boats for F1 and working many years as a UIM Commissioner. His many radical conceptions has elevated both F1 and F3 to a new level of professionalism.

All three legendary drivers will be on hand on the weekend of the 17th thru the 19th of May. Molinari will be there watching many drivers running his latest in propeller designs while Bill Seebold will be there watching his oldest son Michael who is 3rd in the championship standings run for the MM Power Team. Cees will keep a close eye on his VividVeldon Team who with lead driver Sami Selio is 2nd in the World Championship standings after the opening round race in Portimao, Portugal.