Asian
Formula 2000|
Asian
Formula 2000 |
Karun's
Column
What
a weekend !!! My car that i crashed in Korea wasn’t ready for this weekend
here in China (thanks to the Chinese customs ), so we were in a state of
major panic on Thursday night. I had rented a car from Mark Goddard to
learn the track on Thursday after doing a few laps in a Formula Campus
on Wednesday.
I went into the weekend with a 20 point lead and needing to finish only 3rd in both the races to seal the championship.But here i was a night before official practice without knowing which car i would be driving for the most important weekend of my career till date !! At the end we decided to forget trying to finish the car and get on with setting up Mark’s car in the way i liked it.
There
were 2 new Japanese drivers who had come in from Formula Toyota. The had
brought in some special new brake pads from Japan and the circuit here
in Zuhai is all about braking so we sort of figured that these guys would
be hard to beat. Testing was spent just adjusting the car and getting all
our bits fitted and working right and so there was no time to do any of
the setup work that we normally do. In qualigying our fears had been proved
right. The 2 Japanese boys qualified on the front row for both races as
i qualified 4th and 3rd. The only consolation was that my championship
rival Asif Nazir had managed to qualify only 5th and 8th.
Race
1 started off ok, and i was running 3rd behind the Jap boys with Asif in
4th. But after 4 laps i started having trouble with the brakes and i waved
Asif through into 3rd (not wanting to hold him back). Then with 2 laps
to go, a combination of Asif braking a little earlier than i thought for
the first corner and my brake problems caused me to spin. I then had Denis
Lian snapping at my heals and so to avoid risk of a collision and losing
vital points, i made it easy for him to pass. Asif went on to win with
Denis 2nd and me 3rd, and although i was a bit disappointed, i wasn’t too
worried because i knew that i was on track for the championship.
Race
2 was much better for me and with Asif starting down in 8th, i was left
to drive a pressure free race to score my 8th win of the season ( to beat
Narain’s record of 7 ) and take the 2001 Asian Formula Championship. I
am really happy to have won this year and keep the momentum flowing after
winning the National Championship last year. The organizers also awarded
me the trophy for the “Most promising Asian Rookie” which i thought was
very good of them and my thanks to David Sonenscher and his team for that.
The calender year 2001 has been incredible
for me. I sealed the National Championship in Febuary, scored a 91% in
my boards in March, Tested Formula 3 in October before becoming Asian Champion
2 weeks later – and i’m not even 18!!!
None of this though would have been possible without the help of my parents,Akbar Ebrahim,Patrick Roberts,Roland, and of course my sponsors , primarily JK Tyres, ICSA Logistics , Kingfisher , TRAXX, UCAL and PARX.My sincere thanks to them as well as the organizers of this year’s AF2000 championship.
Karun