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he 2017 UIM F1H2O World Championship
is in great shape and seemingly building
into a titanic fight for the title; two Grand
Prix put to bed, two different pole-sitters in
BRM Qualifying with just hundredths, tenths
separating the top runners, two different race
winners, five different names on the podium
runningMoore, DAC and BABA hulls.
After the opening two rounds in Europe the
fast, the furious and spectacular UIM F1H2O
World Championship heads to the Far East to
continue its racing romance with the People’s Republic
of China that is now in its third decade.
In 1995 UIMpromoter Nicolo di San Germano knocked
on the door of the PRC and introduced the world’s most
populous nation to the world of Formula 1 powerboat
racing which it has since embraced fully, hosting 21
F1H2OGrand Prix in 15 years.
Hangzhou hosted the first event [1995] and since then
nine venues, Wuxi, Xiamen, Shanghai, Chongzhou,
Shenzhen, Xi’an, Liuzhou, Linyi andHarbin have followed
suit.
For rounds 3 and 4 and the mid-term of the 2017
campaign the UIM FIH2O tour heads to China’s most
recent recruit Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang
province in the north east, in August and then heads
south to its most established venue, Liuzhou in Guangxi
in October.
Of today’s current on water gladiators it is Sami Selio
and Alex Carella who have tagged the most successes
winning four times; Selio’s first win coming in Shenzhen
in 2008, then twice in 2009 in Shenzhen and Liuzhou
and in Harbin last time out. Carella’s first win came in
Linyi in 2010 followed by a hat-trick of victories from
2012 to 2014 in Liuzhou. Another multiple winner is
Thani Al Qemzi taking victories in Xi’an and Liuzhou
in 2007 and 2011, with Jonas Andersson, Francesco
Cantando, Philippe Chiappe and Ahmed Al Hameli with
a win apiece.
F1H2O
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n° 3August | 2017