Black Tara’s Armaan Ebrahim won the Formula V6 Asia Super Sprint race on Saturday at Sepang. In second place was Earl Bamber, driving for The Pizza Company Team QI-Meritus. Completing the podium was Earl’s teammate James Grunwell in third.

It was a joyous day for birthday boy Ebrahim, who started the race with a clear track in front of him, when the pole sitter Grunwell was forced to start from the pitlane. Ebrahim was able to build a gap straight away from the rolling start and had no trouble all the way to the finish line.

“It was a good present for me, a good win. I was lucky that James didn’t make it to the grid and I got Charlie at the start. The car was consistent, felt good; for sure there are some improvements to be made to the car, but I’m looking forward for tomorrow,” said the 19-year old winner.

For second-placed driver Earl Bamber, he attributed his win to the hard work of his team, who gave him a good car for the race despite early problems in Qualifying. And also having started from the pitlane, he pushed from the word go, passing a car on almost every lap.

“We’ve had a pretty eventful weekend. Our car’s battery caught fire in the cockpit as we were going out to the grid and that’s why we had to start from the pitlane. But the guys have put a lot of hard work in and did a fantastic job on the car. I like to thank all those guys at Meritus for giving a car that is able to give such a fantastic result,” said an appreciative Bamber.

Champ Motorsport’s Kevin Chen could do nothing to defend against the charging Bamber’s passing move on Turn 1, relinquishing second place to the Meritus driver.

Third placed man Grunwell, who also started from the pits, had an aggressive drive, and on Lap 15 forced Hafiz Koh to make a mistake to move up to fourth. On Lap 18, Grunwell’s charge to take third place resulted in him touching tyres with Chen.

“Starting from the back I knew we had the pace of Armaan at the front and the other guys weren’t as close to us so I knew I was able to go forward but it was just a question of where I could pass. I was worried about the yellow flags staying there the whole time. Kevin didn’t give me any room at Turn 1 and so we touched wheels and unfortunately he spun,” said Grunwell.

Round 2 of the Formula V6 Asia takes place on Sunday, 18th May 2008.


Round 1 - Top Five Classification

POS NO NAME LAPS TOTAL TM GAPS BEST TM LAP TEAM

1 3 A. EBRAHIM 19 19:12.561 - 1:00.307 8 Black Tara
2 88 E. BAMBER 19 19:20.883 +8.322 59.761 18 TPC Team Qi-Meritus
3 38 J. GRUNWELL 19 19:27.552 +14.991 1:00.236 6 TPC Team Qi-Meritus
4 4 K. CHEN 19 19:36.326 +23.765 1:00.672 16 Champ Motorsport
5 7 R.TATO 19 19:45.447 +32.886 1:01.271 18 E-Rain Racing

Sportscar racer and CR Scuderia team owner Chris Niarchos is considering expanding the team into Formula Three or World Series by Renault in 2009.

The new team launched their FIA GT, British GT and Formula Renault UK squads at the Autosport International Show today and hope to add either F3 or World Series to their roster next year.

"FIA GT is an extension of what we were already doing in British GT, and next season we hope to unveil the next step in open wheel racing as well," Niarchos said.

"F3 or World Series is the natural progression from Formula Renault, and we really want to take things forward to offer drivers that step up in single-seaters as well as in sportcars."

CR Scuderia driver and reigning Le Mans Series GT2 champion Rob Bell believes the team's FIA GT squad can be successful in their debut season, with top sportscar drivers Tim Mullen and Andrew Kirkaldy completing the line-up.

Bell said: "I've known these guys for a long time and I've been in the Ferrari for a year already, so hopefully we can use that experience to win races from the outset."