Asian Motor Sports

TEAM BRM continues to improve in their 2006 Australian Formula Ford Championship debut this weekend, scoring a fighting second in a thrilling race at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide today.

British driver Ben Clucas lead a majority of today’s second of three races, once again proving his undoubted class in front of a highly competitive field in the national debut for the all-new Ford Duratec engine.

For the second time in two races Clucas was able to capitalize on an incident between the two race leaders, jumping from third to fast after the two cars in front collided exiting turn four.

From thereon in Clucas and Spectrum driver John Martin staged a close battle for the lead, Clucas holding on until the penultimate lap – after eight laps in the lead - when Martin was able to slip by.

The Team BRM driver held on against a fast finishing Nathan Caratti to finish second - improving on the third place he scored yesterday and again showing the massive potential both he and the team has in Australian competition.

And after having ferocious battles with Martin since the start of race one yesterday, Clucas is just two points behind in the overall round results with, giving him a strong shot at an overall round win in tomorrow’s third race.

In a disappointing turn of events, Team BRM’s local rookie Shane Wright had unfulfilled promise after the engine of his Ray White Real Estate Geraldton-supported Van Diemen failed on Lap seven.

Wright – having started 14th – had made impressive progress through the field in the opening stages of the race and was sitting in an extremely competitive 8th place when the engine gave way just before turn eight.

The Modbury based driver has continually improved this weekend despite still having less than 30 laps experience in his Van Diemen RF06 under his belt since gaining the drive with the local team recently.

The team has sourced a replacement engine from Formula Ford Australia and will replace the damaged unit before the final race tomorrow, giving Wright the chance to once again impress with a drive through the field.

Tomorrow’s third and final race of the first Australian Formula Ford Championship round for 2006 gets underway tomorrow morning at 8:15am.

Final Results – Race 2 of 3
Australian Formula Ford Championship Round 2, Clipsal 500 Adelaide

1. John Martin
2. Ben Clucas – Team BRM
3. Nathan Caratti
4. Todd Fiore
5. John Moysten
DNF – Shane Wright – Team BRM

Team BRM Driver Quotes

SHANE WRIGHT – #20 Van Diemen RF06 – Duratec (Race – DNF):