Opes Prime Team BRM has left
round two of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship for the CAMS Gold
Star locking out four of the top five places in the championship – as well as
holding the lead in the Opes Prime National Class.
The Adelaide based
operation succeeded at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide event despite a carnage-filled
second race that ended with two team cars crunched against the hard, unforgiving
Adelaide Concrete Walls.
Running five cars for the first time, the team continued to show the stunning
pace that saw them dominate the opening round of the championship at Eastern
Creek earlier in the month.
Opes Prime Team BRM drivers
won the National Class in race one, and race two outright, qualified on the
front row for both races and left the 3.2km circuit owning the new outright lap
record to boot.
British driver James Winslow (#5 Opes Prime Team BRM
Dallara F307 Mercedes) leads’ the teams’ championship charge, sitting second in
the race for the Gold Star with 37 points.
Winslow qualified seventh for
race one but rebounded strongly to sit on the front row – in second – for race
two.
He raced to fourth in the first race and then a strong third place
finish in the second to continue his strong class-leading form.
Team
BRMs 2006 champion, Ben Clucas, returned to the team in stunning fashion by
winning the second 12-lap race of the weekend after an aggressive drive that
featured hallmarks of his championship winning form of two years ago.
In
race one he pressured eventual winner Neil McFadyen for the duration, attacking
the leader on the last lap only to fall short by less than half a second. In
race two, he drove aggressively from third on the opening lap to take the lead
at half-race and record a stunning comeback victory.
Clucas has now won
12 of the 14 Australian F3 races he has contested, all of them for Opes Prime
Team BRM. He now sits third in the championship having scored all of his 36
championship markers in Adelaide at the weekend.
Round one winner Nathan
Caratti had a tougher time of things, showing good early pace in practice before
dropping down the order slightly in qualifying – logging 7th and 5th fastest
times in the two sessions, respectively.
Caratti improved two places to
fifth in the shortened race one, showing good race pace, but it was a hefty
crash in which he was an innocent party that ended his weekend early in race
two.
Caratti’s #5 Dallara F307 ended crunched hard against the wall just
before Turn ten after unfortunately colliding with team-mate Earl Bamber and
Leanne Tander. Nathan now sits fourth in the championship with 29 points.
Arguably one of the fastest
drivers in Adelaide all weekend was Opes Prime Team BRM’s 17-year-old Kiwi Earl
Bamber.
After just missing out on pole in both sessions, Bamber was in
stunning form in race one – finishing third – as he smashed the four year old
Adelaide street circuit outright lap record.
Bamber lowered the mark to
1m18.6s – a full second faster than the old mark – in Saturday’s first race en
route to a strong third place finish – the first podium finish of his brief
Formula 3 career.
Race two wasn’t quite so speedy, Bamber running
strongly in the leading duo before his car was involved in the three-car shunt
that ended his run towards the end of the race.
Bamber now sits 5th in
the championship with 23 points after two rounds.
In the Opes Prime
National Class Lee Farrell had a quick – if at times torrid – love affair with
the Adelaide street circuit, enthusing about the track from the first time he
lapped it.
He scored two class pole positions in qualifying on Friday,
and backed it up with a lights-to-flag class win in race one.
An
unfortunate ‘off’ in the second race left him to salvage a fifth place finish;
however he holds the points lead 50 – 48 over rival Chris Gilmour.
”What
a weekend – one where Opes Prime Team BRM has shown it’s pace and the ability of
both our team and our drivers,” Team Manager Mark Rundle said.
”We
proved that we could put five competitive cars on the racetrack this weekend as
they each ran at the front at various times this weekend. We’re really pleased
with the performances by all our drivers, performances that have seen them
consolidate their positions well inside the top five of the championship.
”Lee continues to do a great job in the F304 car in the National Class
and drove very well all weekend. The team is looking forward to Oran Park to see
if we can get one of our drivers on top of the standings.” He said.
James Winslow
”It has been a fantastic event.
The Atmosphere has been brilliant and some sections of the track are a lot like
Macau, where I raced in 2006,” James Winslow said.
”I’m a bit
disappointed with the end result, race two wasn’t the best race for me, but in
the end Ben pulled a really good, legitimate move so I let him have the corner
(to take the lead in race two). Neil then just touched the back of my car which
pushed me wide under braking and that let him go by as well.”
Ben Clucas
”I’m really over the moon!” Ben
Clucas said after race two.
”I really have to thank Opes Prime and Team
BRM for making this happen because without their help I wouldn’t be here. I was
a bit disappointed with second in race one because we had good car pace – we
just didn’t qualify well. But in race two I was able to get past Neil and James
and it’s a very satisfying way to win the race.
Earl
Bamber
“I didn’t get the best of starts but I was able to get
past Nathan and then went out after Neil and Ben – I broke the lap record so we
know the car is competitive,” he said following race one.
”In the end
I’m happy with a podium finish – I probably could have got past Ben (in race
one) but it would’ve been difficult without having a massive accident so I
played it safe and finished the race third.”
Nathan
Caratti
”It’s been a weekend to forget,” Caratti said.
”We started strongly in practice but went a bit backwards from there in
Qualifying when the track started gripping up – traffic was also a problem.
”Race one wasn’t too bad – though I was a bit disappointed to drop back
to fifth because I could have held third. I was waiting to see what was going to
happen and in the end I was an innocent part in the accident. Earl’s car just
came across the circuit and hit mine, and then Leanne hit as
well.”
Lee Farrell
”It was a great weekend
overall – I’m just disappointed with the result in race two because we had so
much speed.
”I hit a bump on the run to turn four when I was down
changing, it flung the car into a spin and I slid up the escape road.
”It was great to win race one – it was a fantastic race and I’ve really
enjoyed driving here – it’s a great track."
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