Asian Motor Sports

Adelaide’s Team BRM has today confirmed their driver line up for this weekend’s first round of the 2006 Ford Racing Australian Formula Ford Championship at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide.

Englishman Ben Clucas and promising South Australian talent Shane Wright will give the team a driver line up more reflective of a Commonwealth Games athletic event rather than a driver line up for one of the country’s top open wheel teams.

The two drivers will be the first to steer a Team BRM Formula Ford in the Australian Championship, the team taking the step into Formula Ford competition this year to compliment their existing championship-winning Australian Formula 3 efforts.

When the pair take to the track for opening practice on Thursday it will be the culmination of a fortnight’s hard work for the local team, having only taken delivery of their brand-new Van Diemen RF06 chassis’ within the last week.

A combination of long hours and plenty of dedication from the Team BRM Crew has seen both cars completed within deadline and well before the cars are required at the 3.2km Adelaide Street circuit Thursday morning.

Both drivers will be hoping to reward the team’s dedication with strong results on the demanding Adelaide circuit this weekend, as the team aims to shine on its Formula Ford debut.

21-year-old Clucas will head to the Adelaide streets after demolishing a competitive field in the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship in New South Wales two weeks ago.

Clucas scored a pole position and two race wins at the Wakefield Park F3 event and will take equally impressive credentials into his Australian Formula Ford debut – he sat on the front row of the prestigious British Formula Ford Festival in 2003 and is a former British Formula Ford junior class champion.

22-year-old Shane Wright – who hails from the Adelaide suburb of Modbury – will make his national racing debut at the Clipsal 500 after completing a number of state series meetings with team BRM in the past year.

Wright is a multiple karting champion in both sprint and superkarting competition and will be hoping to jump start his national career with a strong rookie performance at his home event this weekend.

Team BRM’s two young charges will join a host of young driving talent on the grid at Clipsal, the new-look Formula Ford championship revitalized thanks to the new Duratec 1600cc engine introduced over the off season.

Opening practice gets underway at 10:35am on Thursday morning, with Qualifying and the first of three races Friday.

Team BRM Quoteboard.

BEN CLUCAS (UK) - #21 Team BRM Van Diemen RF06 Ford Duratec:

“The new specification Australian Formula Ford car is very different to what I drove in British Formula Ford so it’s going to be another new and learning experience for me.

“I’m not too sure how I will go because it’s difficult to know at this stage if I’m up too speed against the rest of the field. But it’s going to be a fantastic experience to make my Formula Ford debut on the Adelaide circuit. It’ll be the first time I’ve ever driven on a street circuit before and I’m really looking forward to it.

“We’ll see how we are going results-wise after Practice one.