Yu, who won the last round of the series also held at Sepang on May 29th, was confident without traffic problems he would have also been starting on the front row for the first race of the event which will be held on Saturday June 18th. “Frank is carrying 70 kilos of success ballast so to qualify second was a very good effort” remarked Team Manager, Mark Goddard. “We are not sure if we can beat the double pole winning Ferrari on pace but in a 40 minute race a lot can happen.”

Samson Chan “couldn’t get a clear lap” and was disappointed to qualify 7th for both races. “Samson should have qualified further up the grid with some more luck and we know from his pace in practice he will only go forward in tomorrow’s race” said Goddard.

The car ran in the hands of Frank Yu and Samson Chan who will race in the GT Asia Series. The team’s test driver, ex-Minardi F1 pilot and A1GP winner, Alex Yoong, drove both cars to undertake some set-up work. “The cars did not miss a beat which is a testament to the great job Matech did building the cars to a very tight schedule” reported Craft Eurasia’s Mark Goddard. “We are very happy with the support we have received from Matech and we are confident the car will competitive at the first GT Asia event which will held at the Sepang AFOS event on May 28-29”.

The cars are powered by a 5 litre Ford V8 engine mated to a six speed Hewland gearbox. The car has been successful in FIA GT in Europe and should continue that success in the GT Asia Series. Over thirty entries have been received for the first race which will make it a not to be missed event.

Pre-season testing is essential for any driver serious about winning and with the first race schedules for the first weekend of April drivers should plan to start running as soon as possible.

Round five, the third race of the weekend, was once again held in hot and sunny conditions. Starting positions for the days two races were based on the finishing positions of the previous day therefore Nabil Jeffri lined up 5th with Padayachee 10th, Sakurai 15th and Bradley 18th. Another brilliant drive from Bradley saw him scythe through the field, finishing fourth overall, second in the Pacific Series. Kotaro Sakurai also had an impressive drive, finishing 5th overall from 15th on the grid, third in the Pacific points. Nabil Jeffri faded towards the end of the race, his fever being worse than the day before. It was a brave drive again from the local driver. Duvashen Padayachee was again battling for the whole race, finally finishing in 10th place, 7th in the Pacific points.

The grid for round six had Nabil Jeffri in 5th place, Bradley 8th, Padayachee 10th and Sakurai in 22nd. Bradley was soon up to 5th place and hunted down Oon to take the Pacific lead. He then cruised around content to finish behind the three guest drivers having learnt that racing with them could be detrimental to his championship points. Sakurai from the very back was up to 6th with a couple of laps to go when he was tagged by Dixon into turn one, damaging the front wing and consigning him to 8th place. Padayachee had a very entertaining race, constantly battling again and grabbing tenth place on the last lap. Meanwhile Nabil Jeffri had a fraught race, contact with Calvin Wong and James Birch dropping him down the field. He eventually finished 11th, still suffering from a fever.

“We demonstrated we are the pace in the Pacific Series, coming away with increased leads in both driver and team championships. We were also very competitive with the guest drivers, without the accidents I am sure we could have won overall. It demonstrates the standard here is now on par with Europe” stated Mark Goddard of Eurasia.

Next event is in Korea in August, the AFOS event will be the first race meeting at the new Korean F1 Circuit.

Sakurai was happy to be so close to pole and to be starting from pole position in his third event whilst Nabil Jeffri was pleased to be second of the Pacific Series point scorers and first local driver on the grid. Bradley who had dominated the first event and was consistently fast in practice was disappointed to be 6th on the grid after he met traffic on his “tyre window” laps on both new sets during qualifying.

At the start Kyvat led from Sakurai with a fast starting Bradley up to third. The leading duo pulled away whilst Bradley, Sainz and Lewis fought over third place. Sakurai took the lead with a brave dive up the inside of a weaving Kyvat at turn one on lap 5. It was a lead he was to keep to the last lap despite a bent front steering arm after contact during his pass for the lead. Bradley was embroiled in the battle for third which ended in tears on lap 7 when Lewis appeared to turn into the Singapore based driver, tearing off Bradley’s rear wheel in the process.

Sakurai looked in control with a 1.5 second lead at Turn 12 on the last lap when the damaged steering arm gave way causing him to spin out of control, crashing into Sainz Jr as he attempted to regain the circuit. Sakurai limped back to the pits on three wheels taking the chequered flag in the pit lane. Nabil Jeffri finished 7th overall, 5th Pacific Series runner after a brave run. The Malaysian was suffering from a high fever and was struggling in the humid heat. Duvashen Padayachee was tenth in the Pacific Series points after a good drive in traffic.

The Stewards were busy after the race, penalising Kyvat three grid positions for the next round for weaving in front of Sakurai whilst the latter was given a five grid position grid penalty for crashing into Sainz, reduced from the normal 10 places due to mitigating circumstances, namely his broken steering arm.

Round four was held two hours later and the team worked miracles to repair Sakurai’s extensively damaged car and get it out before the pit lane closed with less than a second in hand! The finishing touches we put to the car on the grid before the start. Bradley made a great start to slot into third before he was harpooned by James Birch (penalised 10 grid positions for round five for his actions) spinning the Eurasia driver who was hit by a passing Calvin Wong bending his rear wing to a crazy angle. Despite dropping to the back of the 23 car field he was able to force his way back to 8th place, 5th in the points after a ‘champions’ drive. Sakurai finished fifth, second in the points after a great drive with a car that was set up by eye on the grid. It was all for nothing as the rear wing main-plane was found to be one degree over the allowed limit and, despite the fact it gave no advantage as it adversely affected his straight-line speed, he was disqualified, consigning him to last on the grid for round six the following day. No other penalties were applied due to the mitigating circumstances. Nabil Jeffri was a fine 5th overall, second in the points, despite having to take anti-biotics due to his high fever. Duvashen Padayachee was tenth, 7th in the points, after another forceful drive.

Rounds 5 and 6 will take place on Sunday 16th May.

With plenty of guest drivers being attracted by the lure of impressing the Formula 1 fraternity, it was important that the regular Formula BMW Pacific drivers kept their eyes on the overall Championship point score (as guest drivers don’t score points).

From this point of view, Wootton managed to secure a good haul of points – third and fourth place points respectively. Importantly, he managed to finish the two races without incident or damage to his Formula BMW FB02.

A disastrous qualifying session saw the youngster qualify in 11th placing for both races – his engine cover coming loose midway through the session, which cost him the chance to chase down pole position. His best two laps (which determined the grid for races one and two respectively) were both the 11th quickest laps of the field.

This compromised the overall result, however with the action that unfolded (including two rollovers in race one!) to have the car come home unscathed was a feat in itself.

Race one, Chris was lucky to avoid Fahmi Ilyas, who was making his way through the field and almost collided with the Australian and then on the final lap, Wootton got past his Eurasia Motorsport team-mate, Axcil Jefferies, who had tagged the wall and subsequently collided with Cao Hong Wei, which pitched the Zimbabwean into a violent roll.

The second event was a reasonably lonely affair for the Aussie, a late race Safety Car to clear debris from the track assisted in tightening the field up, but for most of the race, he was on his own.

With just three races to go, Chris has his eyes firmly on finishing 2009’s Formula BMW Pacific in the top five, which is now in reach after poor rounds by several drivers surrounding him in the Driver’s Classification.

The 20-year-old from Brisbane had a busy week visiting sponsors, including First Automobile, Fraser Place and the One 15 Degree Marina and took time out to meet with a group of disadvantaged youth that were visiting the Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix. Through being a Formula BMW Junior, Chris also had the opportunity to tour the Formula 1 paddock and meet with the BMW Sauber F1 Team drivers.

The next event for Formula BMW Pacific will be staged in support to the World Touring Car Championship round at Okayama in Japan, October 30 to November 1.

BEHIND THE HELMET: CHRIS WOOTTON
“It’s fantastic to say that we have had a weekend here with no damage – there are lots of other drivers that would like to say the same!

“We wanted to score some solid points today and given the guest drivers are taken out the Championship points, to score points for third and fourth places is great. It gives us the opportunity to fight for a top five finish overall, which would be superb.

“The racing here was so tough, it’s extremely hot and humid generally, let alone sitting in the cockpit of the racecar with a race suit and helmet.

“There was plenty of action throughout the weekend and it would have been fabulous for the spectators.

“Qualifying was very disappointing, but its behind me now. You just have to make do with what you’ve got and I come away with some decent points, so I’m happy.

“I love it here in Singapre, it was great fun and to race on a track like this is just awesome. The Formula 1 drivers love the track and so do I. It’s a real challenge of high speed, with a concrete canyon and some awesome corners.

“The next round at Okayama will be interesting. It’s good there are only a few weeks between events so I can get back in the car and go racing!”

Qualifying went wrong for Harvey after he hit a kerb hard and tagged the wall on his sixth lap. At that time he was in the top three but with bent suspension he was unable to go faster and slumped to 7th fastest. It was a small but costly error. Axcil Jefferies did well to qualify fourth, in undoubtedly the most competitive field in the history of the Series, alongside rookie championship rival Gary Thompson. Chris Wootton was eleventh, losing three laps in the pits after an engine cover clip failed, with Paul Lau in 17th, the Hong Kong driver happy to have out-qualified Singapore rival Kerisnan.

The start for race was dramatic with Akhil Kushlani rolling after contact in turn one. This brought the safety car out with Jefferies up to third place, Harvey in 7th, Wootton 8th and Lau 17th. At the re-start Jefferies lost a place and dropped to fourth and lost ground to the cars in front whilst he conducted a fraught battle with Gary Thompson. Harvey looked on in 6th place not wishing to spoil a championship battle. The two Pacific rookie drivers put on a superb display of wheel to wheel racing, swapping places yet avoiding contact. It all came to head when Gary and Axcil swapped places in a fraught battle at turn 15 allowing Harvey past in the confusion. The latter then drove away to an accomplished fourth place setting the race’s second fastest lap in the process but too far behind to catch third place before the chequered flag.

It all went wrong for Jefferies on the final lap, Axcil in his bid to catch Thompson taking “Piquet” turn faster than he done before, clipping the exit wall and damaging the suspension. The Zimbabwean slowed and was pulling off the circuit when Cao arrived on the scene, ran into the rear wheels of the Eurasia Car which immediately rolled. Jefferies who remained in the upside down car for some time (trying to work out how to undo his belts and not his scratch his helmet when he hit the ground!)
was unharmed but it was a severe blow to his championship aspirations.

Chris Wootton made a good start to the race to finish the first lap in 8th which became seventh at the re-start and then was not troubled by Cao was within a couple of seconds for the whole race but did not look like he would threaten the Australian. He took sixth place on the final lap courtesy of his team mate retiring.

Paul Lau finished 17th after a good safe drive.

Race two was less dramatic although the racing was still fraught. Harvey had a great first lap and was up to sixth followed by Jefferies with Wootton in 9th. Jack was soon up to fifth and then past championship leader, Haryanto, for fourth place. One again he had lost too much time in the early laps to catch the driver in third before the chequered flag but this time he was less than a second behind and only needed a few hundred more metres to get on the podium. A safety car on lap three gave Jefferies the chance to get past Haryanto but the latter retook the place after running off the road on the exit of turn 7 giving him the chance to draw alongside before turn 8 and retake the place. Despite his best efforts Jefferies failed to take the place back from Haryanto by a mere .452 of a second at the flag. Rookie championship rival, Gary Thompson, finished down in eleventh place meaning they go into the next round at Okayama in Japan 14 points apart.

Paul Lau finished 15th despite a quick spin.

The team now moves to Okayama in Japan for rounds 13 and 14 of the series at Okayama Circuit.

Jack Harvey who is a race winner in the 2009 F.BMW Europe Series with Fortec Motorsport will be a potential victor alongside Wootton and Jefferies. “We are really happy that Racing Steps Foundation supported driver, Jack Harvey, is joining us at Singapore for what is building up to be a really competitive event.” stated Eurasia Motorsport’s Mark Goddard. “We also welcome Paul Lau to the team and I am sure he is going to have a memorable experience in his first F1 GP support event”.

“Eurasia congratulates Daniel for his championship success and we hope he will be the first season long driver from the Pacific Series to gain an F1 race seat.” stated Mark Goddard of Eurasia Motorsport. “This demonstrates that the combination of Eurasia Motorsport and the Pacific F.BMW Series is a great career path for any young driver.”

The weekend started well for the 20-year-old – right on the pace in practice and qualifying, the top five were within half a second. He was confident his race setup would position him well for the four races around the 3.9 kilometre circuit.
Race one ended on lap nine when the motor let go in the last corner, Chris coasted to a halt in pit lane. It was discovered the timing chain had failed. He was tracking well before the failure and keeping with the leaders.
Chris was fired up for the second race of the weekend, with a fresh engine behind him. He was looking very good for a strong result before he went off circuit on lap six. Thankfully, the damage done to Eurasia Motorsport Formula BMW FB02 was minor and wouldn’t compromise his starting on Sunday.
Having to start the final two races from the rear of the grid, Chris charged through the field to finish seventh in round nine, having raced hard to work his way through the field.

In the final race, again from the rear of the grid, he was able to force his way forward to sixth placing. He showed plenty of grit and determination to get that far through and his pace was very similar to that of the front runners even though he was fighting his way through traffic.
This has given the Brisbane racer some encouragement despite the disappointment of once again having a weekend start strongly, but having circumstances conspire against him.
Chris is hoping his luck turns around at the next event – the Formula 1™ Singtel Singapore Grand Prix over the weekend of September 25-27 – which marks the beginning of the second half of the Formula BMW Pacific season.
Despite the two DNF’s, Chris retained seventh placing in the overall Driver’s Classification.
BEHIND THE HELMET: Chris Wootton
“What a weekend. Today’s fight through the field in the two races has energised me a lot and I leave feeling far happier than I was after Saturday’s events.

“The pace we had would have held us in good stead for the races. Qualifying was tight with only 0.5 of a second separating the front three rows of the grid. I would have liked to be on the front row as I have for the other events, however, the team thought it would work out once racing got underway.
“The most frustrating part is that we are there at the front of the field in qualifying, but it is the races that count!
“I’m really pleased with the fightback today, though. To come through the field as I did was pleasing and with there only being a few weeks between events, my focus is immediately on Singapore.
“It’s going to be a big event for us. We have several sponsors in Singapore and we have a number of events that we’re planning during race week – so it’s going to be busy. I love the circuit there and racing as part of the only Formula 1™ night Grand Prix is exciting, the atmosphere is second to none.”