Prior to joining up with Scott Gillman’s team, Roms spent the past nine seasons with fellow Finn Sami Selio when he joined the series as an eighteen-year-old finishing his debut season in twelfth place in the standings.

The four-time World Champion Scott Gillman said.

We are excited about having Roms joining our team. He is now truly a veteran driver who can only help our young driver Alec Weckstrom who I believe has both the pedigree and talent to go a long way in this sport. Knowing Roms as I do, he can add so much to this operation in 2022.

Gillman added with a laugh,

Well, now with two Finnish drivers in the team, I’m going to have to be forced into taking a lot of saunas when relaxing and watch a whole lot of Ice Hockey if I want to become part of conversations with my drivers when it’s not centred around powerboat racing.

Back in 2012 when Roms joined the F1H2O World Championship he became the youngest ever driver to do so and then went onto become the youngest one to score points. Three years later he would become the youngest driver to earn a top-three podium finish at the French Grand Prix held in Evian, out racing World Champion Alex Carella in the process. One year later he once again finished on the podium in Evian, this time it was Shaun Torrente that was filling his mirrors as Roms crossed the line in second place.

Even though the French Grand Prix has now moved from Evian to Macon Val de Saone, Roms will be hoping that he can make it a ‘hat-trick’ of podium visits come Sunday afternoon.

The first action on the 1500 metre Macon circuit takes place on Friday with an extra free practice session at 16.00 (local time). A second practice session on Saturday morning is followed by Official Qualifying at 15:00, with the final practice session on Sunday morning and the UIM F1H2O Grand Prix of France at 16:00.

Images by Chris Davies/PRW & Xavier Bertin Racing Images.

Over the weekend Seliö spoke to PRW and confirmed that a new ‘multi-year’ contract has been agreed with His Excellency Khalid bin Jassim Al Midfa, Chairman of the Board of Directors, who recently became the Vice President of the UAE Marine Sports Federation.

It’s a huge step in the right direction for the team and to have the backing of the Sharjah International Marine Sport Club is a massive thing for me. On a personal level it will allow me to pursue my third F1H2O Championship title as I still have the passion and the speed to well in F1.

Seliö is known for his exceptional pace and qualifying prowess, having won thirteen Grand Prix, and picked up thirty-five additional podium finishes including a third place at last year Grand Prix of Europe in San Nazzaro, Italy. Having qualified on pole position twenty-five times, it puts him third overall in the F1 record books.

Following the global COVID-19 epidemic more than 90% of the population in the UAE has now been fully vaccinated, and work has now been approved by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council, and the Ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah to build five brand new watersport training centres throughout Sharjah.

This will provide a new permanent base for the race team, along with facilities to teach sailing, rowing and junior powerboat racing using the GT10 class which Seliö has been the driving force behind it getting UIM international approval.

The twice F1H2O World Champion is the first to admit that it’s been very tough going, with just three F1H2O Grand Prix and six rounds of the UIM F2 World Championship taking place over the last twenty-four months. Having secured the mechanical services of Claudio Borra along with several key team personnel the Finn now knows that the shore side of his racing enterprise is stronger.

As to the driver line up for this season, Seliö is finally in a position where he can start evaluating who will be competing in the colours of Sharjah, including his son Sisu who has competed regularly at the RaceWKND events. One of those names on that entry form will be Sami Seliö.

I’m still not the oldest driver competing in F1H2O, so I have no reason to quit yet.

All the two times F1H2O World Champion’s children have competed in the Optimist sailing class, which originally designed back in 1947 has since become one of the biggest ‘One-Design’ boat category in sailing. Now Seliö believes that the recently UIM recognised class of GT10 will become the ‘Optimist’ of the powerboat racing world.

GT10 is the UIMʼs “missing” class where young children can take their first step into “real” powerboat racing. The most important thing is that it makes the starting level of this sport as easy as possible for everyone. This class does not require any specific skills from the driver or parents or mechanics and provides a good foundation and knowledge of the sport.

Originally called the Sj-15 Junior Class, it was created back in 1988 in Finland by the father of Seliö, Niilo Seliö. Both he and the Finish Motorboat Federation created it with the idea of giving young children a similar opportunity that ‘Go-Karting’ gave those that wanted to start car racing but preferred to race on water. The following season the class run for 12–15-year-olds had attracted fourteen entries.

For the first ten years the class ran with 15Hp 2-stroke engines but by 1998 boats were appearing with 15Hp 4-stroke engine. Then in 2002 all engines were change to 4-stroke and by 2017 the class was changed to run only 10Hp 4-stroke engines.

The following year the RaceWKND series ran this new class and had five drivers racing. For the 2022 season they now have fourteen drivers, it would have been closer to twenty but three from last year have moved up to the GT15 class. In five years only five drivers have stopped racing, all the others are still racing GT10 or have moved up to the bigger classes.

Nuppu Böhmig from RaceWKND said

New drivers come every year and we have found the best way to get the kids to drive is to run ‘Try Out Days’ and then hopefully we can enrol them into our Academy. That’s how we get the kids in Finland onto the water.

Now with the class being an official UIM one we see its future as being a bright one. Our GT10 racers were so excited to travel last year to Lithuania to race with the drivers from the Academy run by Edgaras Riabko. Our young powerboaters can’t wait to get to more international events. So, Finland is ready to rock also in GT10 class.

To teach these young 7- to 12-year-olds good ‘race craft’ we always reverse the top ten on the starting grid after each of their four heats. That way each of them get the chance to learn to safely past each other during the race. This class is where Sami Seliö and his teammate Filip Roms along with Kalle Viippo all started their racing career, and these young drivers all see them racing in the F1H2O series.

Seliö is still very much behind this class, his son Sisu has competed regularly at the RaceWKND events and back in 2019 he was one of the drivers who put on a demonstration race before the start of the F1H2O Grand Prix of Sharjah.

The rules for the GT10 class state that the engine must be a UIM-approved, freely commercial, four-stroke standard outboard engine manufactured in 2015 or later. It must have a maximum declared power output of 10 horsepower. The engine speed limiter must not be removed or altered, giving it a top speed of 50km/h approximately 30mph. It must function as originally intended by the engine manufacturer and be in working order. No modifications, tunning or additions to the engine may be made. In terms of equipment, it must correspond in all respects to the model as intended by the manufacturer for general sale. The GT10 class approved carburettor engines are:

• Mercury F 9.9
• Tohatsu MFS 9.8
• Yamaha F 9.9
• Mariner F 9.9
• Parsun 9.8

The only approved boat hull is a Speedrace boat complying with specification in the UIM homologation file. Several UIM National Federations including Lithuania, Portugal and Sharjah have already purchased a set of moulds from the Finnish Federation and have produced the hulls. More countries have shown an interest including Ireland, Estonia, Norway, Russia, Egypt, and Fujairah.

The minimum weight of the boat is 150kg which relates to the complete rig weighed directly after the race including driver, personal safety equipment, residual fuel but without residual water.

The propeller must be selected from spare parts lists of different manufacturers (custom-made propellers are not accepted), the material must be aluminium. The propeller may be modified and shaped, but no material may be added, and the Exhaust gases must exit through the propeller hub, i.e., no holes may be drilled in the propellers.

Seliö concluded by saying

In the GT10 class children can start learning the basics of competing in a safe as well as an equal class.

 

After that, it will be much easier for them to move on to the GT15 class which is already more demanding.

 

Then it’s GT30, Formula 4 and perhaps one day they will win the F1H2O world title.