The seven month journey began in early
-une, in Brasilia, at the series’ first ever
event on the South American continent,
with Finnish two-time World Champion
Sami Selio of the Mad-Croc Baba Racing
Team stealing the spotlight winning
from pole position with the Qatar Team
duo reaching the podium for the first of
three times during the year with Torrente
finishing ahead of Carella in two of the
three opportunities.
In mid-summer in late July the tour was
off to historic .yiv for the Grand Prix of
Ukraine and this time the story was all
about French driver Philippe Chiappe of
the CTIC China Team who captured his
first victory in his 11 year-career making
it a very popular victory throughout the
paddock for the likeable driver from
Rouen.
Shaun Torrente’s second straight runner-
up positionmoved himahead of the fourth
placed finishing Selio in the drivers points
table to lead 30-29, with Alex taking third
for the second consecutive event for 24
points putting third in the championship.
As the series headed to the Far East for
the fall season stopover in the Southern
city of Liuzhou at the Grand Prix of China, it
was once again time for the Italian to exert
himself. Alex knew that he had to make a
move if he wanted to win another title. He
did just that, winning for the second year
in a row from pole position.
His team member Torrente, who was
glued right behind Alex the first half of
the race, had disaster strike when a brief
mechanical problem moved him down to
sixth while Sami Selio came home second
and Chiappe finished in a close third.
At the halfway point of the season Alex
had tied Sami Selio with 44 points to lead
the drivers table with Philippe Chiappe
sitting at 39 and Torrente at 35 making
it a close four driver scrum for the title.
It was off to Doha and the 10th Grand
Prix of Qatar with Alex nailing down pole
position just ahead of his teammate
Torrente. It looked it would finish that way
in the race as well, until, with just three
laps from the end, Alex’s engine gave
out handing his friend Shaun the victory.
The Floridian had earned his first career
victory on the tour and had now moved
into first place in the championship with
55 points.
The win in Doha wasn’t without drama.
Shaun and fellow American Terry Rinker
of Team Azerbaijan were rounding the
turn leading to the start finish line when
they collided ending Rinker’s day with a
barrel roll while Shaun was able to cruise
to the win via a yellow ïag two laps later.
For French driver Chiappe, he wanted
to forget Doha totally. Firstly, he missed
a buoy in the race in the fight for third
place, then he was penalized for passing
the leader Torrente on the yellow ïag
and if that wasn’t enough, he was later
disqualified from any result when the race
oǸcials said he had an illegal issue with
his engine.
The driver from Northern France would
fight the ruling for three weeks finally
getting word on the morning of the final
day of the season that the disqualificatio
ruling was upheld and he would receive
no points.
With just two races to be run in the
United Arab Emirates, the lead in the
championship had changed for the fourth
straight race in a row. Bad luck once again
visited the Florida driver as Torrente failed
to get a lap in the final Q qualifying
session needing an engine change and
moving him back to the 11th starting
position for the race.
Meanwhile, Sami Selio got his new boat
working to perfection grabbing pole
position while trying to forget his own bad
F1H2O
18 | H20 MAGAZINE - MARCH 2014
h2oracing.net
