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DOHA TO KICK-START
2015 SEASON
H2O Racing will kick-start 2015
with an action packed triple-
header in Qatar’s dazzling capital
city Doha.
The ten days of non-stop racing
starts with the UIM-ABP Aquabike
Class Pro World Championship
with maximum rider line-ups
anticipated in Runabout, Ski men
and women and Freestyle, and
is followed by the fifth outing
of powerboatings’ Nations Cup
World Series.
The climax to the now customary
March
Water
Festival
sees
16 drivers from eight teams
representing 10 countries lining
up on Doha Bay for the opening
round of the UIM F1H2O World
Championship.
PHILIPPE CHIAPPE AND TEAMCTIC
CHINA SET OUT ON TITLE DEFENCE
Not to be caught off guard, newly
crowned
UIM
F1H2O
World
Champion Philippe Chiappe recently
completed two full days of testing
with his CTICChina Team colleagues
as he prepares to start his title
defence in Qatar.
The driver who dominated the
final two races of the year winning
back-to-back Grand Prix in Abu
Dhabi and Sharjah to lift his first
title last December, spent time on
the water in the Emirates working
on fine tuning the balance of his
Championship
winning
David
Moore built boat, while at the same
time, testing a myriad of propellers
that will be needed on the always
tricky course along Doha Bay.
“We have been very busy working
on many combinations of set-up,
propellers and new concepts for our
team for 2015,” said the driver from
Rouen. “We realize there are other
truly
professional
organizations
working just as hard trying to ‘knock
us off the mountain’ this season
and we are doing our best to stay
one step ahead of the competition.
But I think this team is now more
determined than ever to prove to
everyone in the sport that we are no
one year wonders.”
In
February
the
world
of F1H2O lost one of its
favourite sons and a towering
pillar of world powerboat
racing,
Siegfried
‘Ziggy’
Boettle.
Ziggy
was
an
institution
in
the
sport
serving
as
one of Outboard Marine
Corporation’s
(OMC)
top
engineers for almost five
decades, devoting his time over
the years to the powerboat
racing community at local,
national and international level.
He
began
his
invaluable
service with the UIM F1H2O
community
in
1996
as
Technical Commissioner as
a representative of the UIM,
becoming Chairman of both
the UIM Formula One and
Safety Cockpit Committee’s.
In 2011 he became one of an
elite ‘band of brothers’ to be
voted into the F1H2O Hall of
Fame.
Ziggy will be greatly missed,
always remembered.
F1H2O REMEMBERS
‘ZIGGY’
04
n° 1 March | 2015