Chris van der Drift begins with supremacy in French street races. PAU, 1 June
2008 - Chris van der Drift signaled his speed in the streets of the French city
of Pau during last weekends International Formula Master second raceweekend of
the season.
After gaining the fastest lap times in both test sessions and qualifying in pole
position, it appeared the Kiwi driver was on track to have a fantastic weekend.
However a technical problem with the cars gearbox spoiled his chances in race
one. In race two, after starting from 23rd position, it looked highly likely
that Van der drift would still be able to salvage some points from the weekend,
before the race was red flagged prematurely due to a sudden downpour of rain at
the end of the front straight caused many drivers to slide off the track.
After
taking pole position and both race wins two weeks earlier at the opening round
at Valencia, the New Zealander again showed his form by taking fastest lap times
in Friday’s test sessions and in the qualifying session he was dominant,
achieving pole position with a margin of over 1.2 seconds. An unprecedented
result on such a small street circuit such as Pau. The first race was on a wet
track just after midday on Saturday. Van der Drift was fortunate that the race
was to be started under safety-car, as in driving to the grid he realized that
he could not select first gear.
After the rolling start the JD Motorsport driver
opened up a gap from his closest pursuer by over a second per lap. However on
the sixth lap disaster struck. Van der Drift found he could not change down
approaching turn 3 meaning the end of the race for the New Zealander and a
starting position of grid 23 for the following days race. “I could have won the
race easily, but the gearbox gave me problems before the race started. We tried
re-setting the electronics on the grid, but unfortunately that did not help. For
that reason we were lucky to start the race behind the safety-car” said Van der
Drift. “On the sixth lap more faults developed in the gearbox which meant I
could not carry on”. A difficult task awaited the New Zealander on Sunday. Van
der Drift began the second race held over 45 minutes with a great start from
grid 23. Although passing on a street circuit such as Pau is virtually
impossible, he had moved up to ninth position after only 3 laps and had in the
process passed 14 fellow drivers.
However making another pass to get into
the points eventually was not possible, after many attempts were thwarted by the
narrow nature of the circuit. The race was prematurely shortened with eight
minutes remaining when the circuit suffered some heavy rainfall which caused
many drivers to spin off the track at turn two. Due to the early finish of the
race only half points were awarded.
“The beginning of the race was great. At the
start I managed to pick off two drivers, and in the first and second corners I
managed to pass more cars. When the safety-car came out on the track I was in
ninth, and all that in three laps!’ said a thrilled Van der Drift. “I tried
several times to pass Fabrizio Crestani in eighth, but I found it very
difficult. Then it started to rain and several cars crashed out, but I managed
to stay off the tyre wall and found myself in fifth.
The race was declared then,
but the officials took it back to the last completed lap meaning I was ninth
overall”. The following race-weekend is to be held at Brno in the Czech Republic
in two weeks time. Last year Van der Drift finished on the podium twice.
“Considering the speed we have at the moment and the great job the team is
doing, Brno should not cause too many problems” said Van der Drift who leads the
championship after four races.
Chris van der Drift is proud to be one of New
Zealand motor racing's Black Bullets. To find out more about our Black Bullets
go to www.blackbullets.com
Results Race One: International Formula Master, Pau,
31 May: 1 Sergey Afanasiev, (RUS), J.D. Motorsport, 22 laps in 34:59.379 2
Norbert Siedler, (AUT), ADM Motorsport, +2.604 3 Vladimir Arabadzhiev, (BUL),
J.D. Motorsport, +24.174 DNF Chris van der Drift, (NL), J.D. Motorsport
Results
Race Two: International Formula Master, Pau, 01 June: 1 Marcello Puglisi, (ITA),
Pro Motorsport, 23 Laps in 35:07.119 2 Kasper Andersen, (DEN), Trident Racing,
+0.368 3 Alejandro Nunez, (ESP), Trident Racing, +0.572 9 Chris van der Drift,
(NL) J.D. Motorsport, +2.165
Championship Overall: International Formula Master
after four races: 1 Chris van der Drift, (NL), J.D. Motorsport, 20 points 2
Michael Ammermüller ,(GER), Iris Project, 17 points 3 Sergey Afanasiev, (RUS),
J.D. Motorsport, 15 points 4 Kasper Andersen, (DEN), Trident Racing, 14 points 5
Fabio Leimer, (SUI), Jenzer Motorsport, 11 points
Chris van der Drift is proudly
supported by: Racing Pool, National Meats Ltd, BMW Ekris
International Formula Master is an extremely competitive championship
for young talented drivers, with 250hp single seaters producing lap times
quicker than top level Formula 3 cars. The class supports the FIA World Touring
Car Championship (WTCC). All eight championship rounds are televised live by
Eurosport and can also be seen online via www.formulamaster.net. (live
streaming). The winner of the championship can look forward to a test with the
Honda F1-team.
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