MEDIA RELEASE- For Immediate Release, December 3

ALAJAJIAN SECURES A PAIR OF FRONT ROW STARTS

Sydney resident Chris Alajajian will start both races in the final round of the 2005 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship for the CAMS Gold Star at Eastern Creek Raceway from the front row of the grid.

Today at the Western Sydney circuit, the Protecnica Racing ace continued to work to the teams program, and ensured he had a good starting position for the final two races of the season.

The 19 year-old set the second fastest time in each of today’s qualifying sessions, with laps of 1:26.9076 and 1:27.0846.

“We have worked on some changes for this round to try and make the car better than it was here last time,” said Alajajian, winner of the last round of the championship, after the first qualifying session.

“If things don’t go as planned, we can just go back to the setup we had here at A1 and hopefully show some good speed again.

“It took me a while to get into it. I started pushing a bit late in the session, quite opposite to Michael [Trimble, polesitter for both of tomorrow’s races] and some of the other drivers did, and the outcome was that it worked better for them than it did for me.

“There was a headwind that came on late in the session, which was when I was trying to push and it cost us some time. I know we are capable of doing a faster time time than we did in that session.

A slight change in track temperature ensured the second session was slower than the first, with the pole position time half a second slower than in the first session. In qualifying two, Alajajian closed the gap, with his time under two-tenths of a second shy of his earlier benchmark.

“The adjustments we made were a lot better in the second half of the session,” he said. “We made a little change and we were going to make another change which I’m pretty sure would’ve improved our session even more but we left it too late and just didn’t have time to make it.”

The team now turns their attention to tomorrow’s races, the final two of the 2005 championship.

It is in these races that Alajajian will look to overcome a now 19 point advantage currently held by Michael Trimble and take second in the championship.

“We are happy with what we did today,” said Alajajian. ”The team has done well. We played it pretty smart, so we will just wait and see what happens tomorrow, because tomorrow is the day that counts.”

The opening 13 lap race tomorrow kicks off at 11:05am, with the final race of the season slated to start at 2:20pm.

Protecnica Racing thanks the ongoing support of Jack Hillermans Smash, Elf Oil, Scuderia Veloce Motors, Nudie, Workflow Systems, Bilstein, Moody Kiddell & Partners, Heasman Steering, Travel Café, Disc Brakes Australia, Hawk Performance, Monza Mens Boutique and H & R Springs.

For more about Chris Alajajian, check out www.TheChris.com.au

Eastern Creek Qualifying 1
1. Michael Trimble, 1:26.0910
2. Chris Alajajian, 1:26.9076
3. Leanne Tander, 1:27.2397
4. Chris Gilmour, 1:27.2554
5. James Cressey, 1:27.9491

Eastern Creek Qualifying 2
1. Michael Trimble, 1:26.5940
2. Chris Alajajian, 1:27.0846
3. Leanne Tander, 1:27.4238
4. Chris Gilmour, 1:27.4442
5. James Cressey, 1:27.771

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Media Resources ::

Sydneysider Chris Alajajian on-track in preparation for this weekends final round of the 2005 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship for the CAMS Gold Star at Sydney's Eastern Creek Raceway. (Richard Craill photo, click for high-res)
Sydneysider Chris Alajajian is eyeing second place in the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship for the CAMS Gold Star in this weekends final round. (Copyright free for editorial use, click for high-res)