F1H2O
years running from 1993 to 1996 in the midst of his multiple world
titles.”
Alex, at age 28 has a long career still ahead. Hewill do his best over
time to track down the record of 10 world titles that Cappellini had
in his 20+ years of racing in the UIM F1H2O World Championship
and 172 race starts.
If there is any one driver who is going to push Alex to the limit it
just maybe his own teammate, Shaun Torrente of the USA, as the
driver from Miami, Florida is coming off his first complete season
finishing second in the championship with 4 points just shy of
Alex’s 80 at seasons end.
The two-time North American champion entered the F1 scene with
a dazzling resume. Shaun won three F2 (SST-120) titles in four
years before moving to the 8SF1 circuit in 200 winning §rookie-
of-the-year¨ honors with the §California Gold¨ racing organi]ation.
Torrente jumped at the chance to come to the F1H2O circuit in 2011
with Team Sweden after winning six of his final 10 starts in North
America. He joined forces with talented veteran Jonas Andersson
and immediately made his presence known finishing fourth in
Doha and later qualifying second in Kazan by his third career start.
For Shaun, the shadow of controversy followed him in his first two
years. It began with his crash with race leader Marit Stromoy of
Norway on a re-start in Portimao, Portugal eliminating both boats
in their battle for a win. In his next four races in 2001 he would race
three different boats crashing out twice while dropping out with a
mechanical issue the other time.
In 2012 after joining the Qatar Team he showed his metal by
earning pole position and leading two straight races but dropping
out with mechanical issues in both. Later in the season he and
Sami Selio crashed out of a race in /iu]hou, China with the oǸcials
determining he was the culprit of the incident sitting him down for
the final two events of the season.
+is luck started to turn around at the start of the first two events
of last season when he out qualified and out- paced his eventual
World Championship earning teammate Carella.
Shaun eventually led the championship table for most of last
season until he was outpaced by Alex in the all- important final
two races in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah thus losing his dream
of becoming world champion and finishing second. §:e are
ready to turn a new page and push ourselves to the limit in race
conditions,” said Shaun. However, at the same time we need to be
more consistent in our qualifying and not over drive the boat like
we did last year for us to earn more poles and thus a better shot of
victory at the same time.”
The year old comes into 2014 knowing he has his first career
win under his belt which came at his home Grand Prix in Doha last
November and looks to continue the streak at the season opener
on Doha Bay.
If any one organization has an honest shot at taking away the
goblet from the Qatar Team duo it would be the lead driver of the
Mad Croc F1 Team, Finland’s Sami Selio.
The 38 year-old will be starting his 16th season in the series
knowing he came within a whisker of taking his third world title a
year ago. Only an uncharacteristic mistake in qualifying crashing
out making him a non-factor in the next day’s Grand Prix. He
would fail to finish the event in a race he needed to win in order to
capture the crown.
The driver fromHelsinki is the leading active qualifying pole sitting
pilot with 22 on his resume, including a record breaking eight in his
8 | H20 MAGAZINE - MARCH 2014
h2oracing.net
