Asian Motor Sports

Some of the closest times seen in series history have been posted during today’s two qualifying sessions for the second round of the 2006 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship at Symmons Plains Raceway this weekend.

The three main championship protagonists – Ben Clucas (Team BRM), Michael Trimble (Astuti Motorsport) and Chris Alajajian (Insight F3) – were the standouts today, with Trimble and Clucas the two drivers on top of the chats after today’s action.

Only four-hundredths of a second separated the three in qualifying one, with just over a tenth between them in the second of today’s two fantastically competitive twenty minute sessions.

Clucas stole the pole for race one tomorrow, setting his best lap of 50.8449 seconds at the mid point of the session and then watching his rivals narrow the already close gap.

First Trimble, then eventually Alajajian came close but not close enough to the British driver’s time – Clucas adding his second pole position to his two race wins already scored this season.

Alajajian scored second – backing up his round one, race two pole position scored at Wakefield Park - whilst Trimble’s qualifying performance was equally strong in his Astuti Motorsport Dallara.

The second session was just as close, Trimble another to set his time early and watch as other came closer and closer – eventually watching Alajajian fall short by under a tenth of a second just a minute from the end of the session.

Alajajian’s lap – one that relegated race one pole sitter Clucas to the second row - came after a red flag was called with three minutes remaining in the session thanks to a stranded car.

The flying Sydneysider quickly got down to strong times and scored the front row start with less than a minute to go in the second qualifying session.

Trimble scored his third career pole position – and first for the season – as the Melbourne based driver looks to get his championship campaign back on track after a tough opening round.

“I was a bit disappointed with qualifying one – we could’ve found the extra time we needed to get the top spot but I couldn’t string together a sequence of laps,