10 Minutes with … Scott Gillman

The UIM has, for many years, appeared to operate in a ‘mysterious world’, but after his appointment as UIM President in an election that was fi ercely lobbied, Italian Raffael Chiulli promised things would change, and that every decision the UIM took would be transparent. Tell that to Scott Gilman and the Abu Dhabi International Marine and Sports Club, and I think they have discovered the waters to be quite murky, particularly concerning the appointment of a new World F2 promoter. After a very unsatisfactory 2008 World F2 series, which involved three promoters from Latvia, Sweden and UAE each hosting his own event, the UIM pledged to make changes and appoint one F2 promoter for the coming season. The long established ADIMSC had the experience, expertise and fi nancial security to make a valid bid and decided to fl oat a new company to take on the promotion as they felt it was essential to keep the ADIMSC and F2 as two separate entities. Before launching into a full scale bid, the new company presented their full package to F2 Team Representative Jenny Jelf who was invited to Abu Dhabi to inspect the proposal before presenting it to the drivers. Mrs Jelf agreed the plan looked exciting and indicated it would appeal to the drivers. Let Scott take up the story: “After Jenny’s comments that our plans looked promising she took our schedule to the Saudi Arabian F2 GP where a vote among the drivers would decide if we were to pursue the project or withdraw. There were four names in the hat come vote time: ADIMSC, the Latvia contingent, F1 Promoter Nicolo di San Germano, and Abdul Salam Fairooz, (who by this time had increased his prize money purse by $10,000). The vote appeared to be fair, and when the outcome was announced both Latvia and San Germano received zero votes, Fairooz had six, while ADIMSC secured ten. After receiving the drivers’ support we returned home and started fi ne tuning our programme as we were confi dent that barring a catastrophe or skull-duggery we would be the 2009 World F2 promoters. When our team arrived at the annual UIM General Assembly hosted by Australia we were still confi dent that our proposal was the winner, and although the F2 Team Rep, Jenny Jelf was spending considerable time with Fairooz, I was assured by her that our proposal still had the drivers’ support, otherwise we would have withdrawn, even at that late stage. We went before the Executive Committee and outlined our proposal in every detail, and Abdul Salam Fairooz went through the same procedure. Jenny Jelf was invited to give the views of the drivers and it was then she indicated ALL the drivers supported Fairooz. The Executive then passed it onto the Council members who made the fi nal decision. When it was announced that Abdul Salam Fairooz’s bid had been successful we were naturally upset and somewhat angry as several matters came to light which were blatant lies. Charles Strange, the well respected UIM Senior Vice President, said that as far as he understood, the drivers voted for Fairooz because of the extra $10,000 prize money, but it also came to light not all the drivers had voted in favour of Fairooz. Jelf had allegedly suggested. Fairooz had the full support of the UAE Federation when it was clear he did not have their support. This has been clearly illustrated by the UAE clubs meeting together and agreeing not to stage any UIM events in the UAE until the truth behind this vote is revealed.” The words published are those of Scott Gillman and have not, in any way been embellished by World of Powerboats. In reality, the situation is a lot more serious than the rift between the WPPA and the UIM, as this effects so many important UIM sanctioned races. Without doubt there has been skull-duggery or a grave misunderstanding behind the scenes, and it’s doubtful whether we will ever learn the truth, but it is imperative the UIM resolve this matter asap. I have spoken to two members of the Executive and they feel that the whole truth behind the successful proposal was not revealed at the time. I have also known Scott Gillman from the early 1990’s when I fi rst met him after he had won a round of the PROP Series in Orlando. During our long friendship Scott has proven to be as honest as the day is long, and that is possibly why the F2 saga has caused such anger in a man who goes to great lengths to avoid controversy.