MEDIA INFORMATION
2024 UIM F1H2O WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
SHARJAH TAKES OVER GILLMAN RACING FOR THE START OF NEW RACING SEASON
- Canadian racer Rusty Wyatt joins Finland’s Filip Roms in new driver line-up
Tuesday, January 23: The Sharjah International Marine Sports Club has today confirmed that four-time UIM F1H2O World Champion Scott Gillman’s Mad Croc Gillman Racing team has been taken over by the UAE emirate of Sharjah and will become the Sharjah Team for the 2024 season.
The American, who was World Champion in 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2006, will continue to act as the Team Manager in an exciting new operation owned by Sharjah Marine and representative team owner Ahmed Al-Hosani, Director General of the Sharjah International Marine Sports Club.
Canadian racer Rusty Wyatt has been signed as the team’s number one driver and will be making his F1H2O racing debut in Indonesia next month. The 28-year-old, from Innisfil in Ontario, has been competing in the American Powerboat Championship with the Crystal Clear/Rusty Wyatt Racing entry and won the 2022 Lake Havusu Classic. An elevator technician by trade, Wyatt was the Canadian Boating Federation’s Rookie of the Year in the T-850 category in 2012 and was High Point champion in 2013 and 2015.
Top rookie in the Superleague Tour in 2016, he graduated to Formula 2 racing before breaking into powerboating Stateside. Last year, he finished fourth in the American Powerboat Championship behind Terry Rinker, Dylan Anderson and Chris Rinker, winning the Loto Powerfest on the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri in the process.
Filip Roms has been retained as the team’s second driver. The 29-year-old finished eighth in last year’s Drivers’ Championship and has amassed 55 race starts since he burst on to the F1H2O racing scene in 2012. The Espoo driver has two podium finishes to his name with his best result being runner-up to Alex Carella at the 2016 Grand Prix of France on Lac Léman in Évian.
The opening round of the 2024 UIM F1H2O World Championship takes place on spectacular Lake Toba on February 23rd-25th. Toba Caldera is one of 20 geoparks in Indonesia and was recognised in 2020 as one of the UNESCO Global Geoparks.
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