Media Release - For
Immediate Release, July 22
SECOND A PROMISING START FOR ALAJAJIAN’S
SYDNEY WEEKEND
A mechanical problem has prevented
Protecnica Racing’s Chris Alajajian from finding his full potential
around Eastern Creek Raceway on an otherwise strong day to kick off
round 5 of the 2005 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship
for the CAMS Gold Star.
On a glorious winter day in Sydney, Alajajian, who enters the
round third in the points, started the weekend the best possible fashion.
He topped the timesheets in the opening practice session, with a lap
time of 1:26.7892 around the 3.93km circuit, in what is just the teams
second round running the Renault-Sodemo Dallara F304.
After setup work conducted on the car between sessions, Alajajian
was able to improve his times by another half a second in early stages
of the second practice session, before a gearbox problem cut short
his running in the 45 minute session.
“It’s a bit of a shame, we were getting faster as the
day went on,” the 18 year old Sydneysider said. “The fastest
time I set today was from when we went out in the first part of the
second session.
“I came into the pits to make some more adjustments and improve
the car, which was the plan all along, looking to find some more time.
After going back out onto the track, just as everything was getting
back up to temperature and the times were starting to come down again,
a gearbox seal popped.”
Some consolation to the Protecnica outfit, though, was that they were
able to complete a productive day of work, and continued to learn
about the finer details of Formula 3.
“We were making a lot of adjustments during the day, and I was
finding the limits as we went along with each lap as the times improved,”
Alajajian said.
“We reached the laptimes that we set out to achieve today, but
there is still some more time to be found in the car, which we can
hopefully find with some changes between now qualifying.”
Qualifying sessions take place tomorrow, Saturday, at 10:30am and
2:15pm, in preparation for Sunday’s 13 lap races, the second
of which will be the 100th Australian Formula 3 race.
Protecnica Racing thanks the ongoing support of Jack Hillermans Smash,
Elf Oil, Scuderia Veloce Motors, Nudie, Workflow Systems, Bilstein,
Moody Kiddell & Partners, Heasman Steering, Disc Brakes Australia,
Hawk Performance, Monza Mens Boutique, H & R Springs and APT Signs.
For more about Chris Alajajian,
check out www.TheChris.com.au
Eastern Creek Combined Practice Top 6;
1 Aaron Caratti - 1:25.1284
2 Chris Alajajian - 1:26.2861
3 Michael Trimble - 1:26.6561
4 Chris Gilmour - 1:26.8348
5 Matt Sofi - 1:26.9797
6 Stephen Borness - 1:28.7899
