Astuti Motorsport Media Release

Astuti Motorsport’s Michael Trimble has had a great start to Round 2 of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship for the CAMS Gold Star at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains Raceway, securing a pole position.

After a disappointing run at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend, where unfortunate luck prevented Trimble’s pace from being put to use in the races, Astuti Motorsport headed to Tasmania, looking to reverse their fortunes.

In qualifying for Race 1, Trimble steered the King Springs Renault-Sodemo Dallara F304 around the 2.4km layout with a best time of 50.8903 seconds. It was good enough for third place on the grid, just 0.0454 of a second shy of pole position.

Qualifying 2, and the team made further progress. The Melbournian secured pole position with a laptime of 50.9214 seconds, in a session littered with red flag disruptions.

It is Trimble’s second pole position in as many weeks - having claimed pole position for the AGP support races - and his third in the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship.

“I’m obviously really happy to be on pole position for the second race,” enthused the 21-year old.

“To be third in the first session was a bit disappointing. I think we had the pace to get pole for the first race but unfortunately with the traffic conditions out there we just didn’t get an opportunity to string a few laps together.

“In that one [qualifying two], I got a bit of clear road infront of me and was able to put my head down and go for it.”

Pole position capped a strong recovery by the Astuti Motorsport team, which worked on the car well into Friday night to solve a handling issue which plagued the team in practice.

“After yesterday, I thought this weekend was going to be a real struggle,” said Trimble, “but the guys worked really hard and late last night to find a really good setup for the car. The car is unbelievable. They’ve done such a great job so I’m really grateful for that.

“The main problem we had was a weight balance problem across the front of the car. I couldn’t brake hard at all, it would just destroy the front left tyre and we went few quite a few tyres.

“We knew it was a problem so the guys fixed it last night, and came out all guns blazing today.”

Astuti Motorsport team owner Sam Astuti was understandably pleased with the day.

“We’re back,” he said. “In the first session it was very close. On his fastest lap, Michael could have also got pole position this morning, but had a bit of traffic. We knew we had the speed, and he certainly showed it pretty early in the second session.

“After the first red flag, we went out just to circulate. We were pretty confident that the time wasn’t going to be beaten, and it worked really well for us. The car’s good, Michael is driving it well, and we don’t have any problems. We’re just going to look for clean and fast racing tomorrow.”

The team now turn their attention to a pair of 25-lap races at the circuit tomorrow, which Trimble enters in second-place in the Championship.

“This track, although it’s so fast, it’s extremely hard to pass,” said Trimble. “Even when you’re following someone in qualifying that’s a second slower than you, it’s really hard to pass, so I think the start is going to be crucial.

"Hopefully we’ll get a good start in both races and will be able to go from there.”

Astuti Motorsport thanks the support of King Springs, PWR Performance Products, Elf, Alcon and Revolution Racewear.

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Astuti Motorsport's Michael Trimble has claimed pole position for Race Two in Round 2 of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship for the CAMS Gold Star at Tasmania's Symmons Plains Raceway.

Astuti Motorsport bounced back in style from handling problems in Friday's practice sessions to secure a top-three starting position in each of tomorrow's two races.