PRESS RELEASE
MAY
23, 2005
The latest
round of the Australian Formula 3 Championship held at Phillip Island
saw Ricky Occhipinti end the weekend with a 4th place and a DNF
in the pair of championship races placing him 6th overall for the
round.
The Geelong
sensation that is arguably on the smallest budget in the championship
showed glimpses of excellence before mechanical gremlins played
their part.
Qualifying saw
Occhipinti put the F301 Dallara-Opel on the third row of the grid
for the two races, in fact a 5th and 6th respectively. "It
was the first time we ran the car on new tyres and the car was just
getting up to speed before we had fuel pump problems, initially
we thought it was fuel surge but it wasn't" the latter in fact
having 15litres of fuel in the car. The Formula Uno Racing machine
had to run the car with 35 litres of petrol to avoid the problem,
therefore having to run the car 28 kgs over weight.
"The problem
made us really have to work harder to get a decent time and gave
the car extra understeer for much of the weekend, but I guess that's
the way goes" commented Ricky.
Sundays first
race was short lived after exiting southern loop for the first time
the rear rose joint on the push rod broke for the car to viscously
dart left sliding in front of the field amazingly not getting cleaned
up by anyone. "Initially I thought the car just understeered
on cold tyres and slightly ran off the track on the exit, but soon
as I got back on the power the car viciously snapped and that was
the end of that.
The 21 year-old's
second race got off to a better start as he Caratti and Alajarjian
went side by side through turn 1. The top half dozen were separated
by very little in the opening stages before the race started to
take shape. Macrow ran wide through Southern loop allowing Occhipinti
and the leading bunch to sneak through. Ricky then set about making
an impression on Alajarjian as the 32 machine dropped both Gilmour
and Tander behind. Alajarjians race ended in smoke with a blown
Renault engine as Ricky's car turned diabolical. "After about
lap 5 the car would viciously pull right which made driving the
car extremely hard, that in turned making the braking balance very
indifferent despite braking a lot earlier than usual". Occhipinti
brought the car home in 4th after the race was declared earlier
than it's original completion time with the Alajarjian stricken
car sitting on top of Lukey Heights which was an encouraging result
after a disappointing opening race.
On further inspection
on the car is thought to have a flow down problem after the high
speed off in race one as the team now weigh up their options to
weather or not to head north to Willowbank Raceway in Queensland
for the next round.
APR
19, 2005
Ricky Occhipinti
over the weekend finished a pair of 6th places in the latest round
of the Australian Formula 3 championship held at the Mallala circuit
north of Adelaide.
The talented
Geelong driver finally found a good car set-up after a bitterly
disappointing opening round and equally disastrous weekend at the
Australian Grand Prix.
"We made
massive gains this weekend, Wakefield was an embarrassment for all
concerned, and the GP we barely did a lap". On the Australian
Grand Prix note Ricky did make an extraordinary start in the final
live televised race on Saturday afternoon going from 23rd to 8th
in one lap in the rain soaked race before the race was red flagged
and declared.
Friday saw Ricky
6th and 4th fastest respectively in the two half hour practice sessions.
The day's sessions were vitally important as Ricky had never raced
an F3 car around Mallala before and more importantly because of
the single Formula Uno Racing team having no data for the car to
overlay, unlike his title combatants.
Qualifying on
Saturday saw the Formula Uno Racing machine fail to maximise a qualifying
time on new tyres, where many were able to pull out a one lay flyer
and little else. Occhipinti was still able to get within a tenth
of the existing lap record held by last years champion Karl Reindler,
despite concentrating on a race set-up more than anything else.
"Even though we didn't put in a blinder, we were the most consistent
car on the track which would pay dividends in a race strategy".
During the opening qualifying session a crack was detected through
the airbox and a rear of field start was the consequence for that
outcome (in fact the crack showed an actual loss of horsepower to
the car on further investigation). The second qualifying saw Ricky
post the 6th fastest time which would place him on the 3rd row of
the grid for Sunday's second race.
Race 1 saw confusion
at the start with championship leader Aaron Caratti breaking a driveshaft
leaving the field scrambling for position on the tight Mallala layout.
Ricky was able to fight his way from the back of the grid with some
great under breaking manoeuvres at the bottom Northern hairpin.
The progress stagnated after catching BRM driver Tim Slade where
the two
battled for much of the race before Ricky made a lunge with 2 laps
to go to grab 6th place and held onto it despite the car struggling
with loads of understeer.
Race 2 saw Ricky
make a nightmare start (slotting it into 5th gear and not 3rd),
but luckily only lost two places. The talented Geelong driver quickly
sped past Marc Williams before losing time to pass Tim Slade, during
this time pole sitter Tim Macrow (recovering from a drive thru penalty)
was able to catch the dicing Slade and Occhipinti .
The race materialised
with some great wheel to wheel racing between Macrow, Slade Occhipinti
and Gilmour who latched onto the back of Macrow. The four drivers
had an entertaining 20 lap duel which saw all four pushing their
respective cars to the limits. The 21 year old was able to hold
off challenges from Macrow and Gilmour until exiting the hairpin
for the last time (20th lap) the car began to run out of petrol.
Queenslander Chris Gilmour and Tim Macrow were able to pass Ricky
but on the next corner Macrow slid off the track and Ricky were
able to grab 6th despite running 5th all race.
"It was
a tough race; I think I was quicker than Timmy in some areas and
he was in others and if we didn't have to defend our lines we could
have caught the guys in front. The car in that race (race 2) was
the best it has been since we have taken over the car. Mark Brzezowski
has done an excellent job in extracting the speed out of the car
and I really think we can continue to
make progress at Phillip Island as this was only just a start"
Ricky stated.
The Geelong
steerer was only a tenth off the current championship leader's time
- Michael Trimble and likewise with round winner Michael Caruso
which furthers echoes the Formula Uno Racing driver's thoughts.
The championship
now heads to the mighty fast Phillip Island track on May 21-22.
"I think we should have a really good package there, we just
hope the 04 cars with the 6 speed (compared to our 5 speed) don't
have too much of an advantage" was the Geelong steerers thoughts
on the next round.
The 04 cars
proved again they are the right car to have as they are a far more
consistent package, where failing exceptional circumstances they
will be hard to beat.
Race
1 Results
1 Michael
Caruso Dallara F301 Alfa Romeo
2 Michael Trimble Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
3 Tim Macrow Dallara F301 Spiess Opel
4 Chris Alajajian Dallara F304 Renault
5 Chris Gilmour Dallara F301 Spiess Opel
6 Ricky Occhipinti Dallara F301 Spiess Opel
Race
2 Results
1
Aaron Caratti Dallara F304 Renault
2 Michael Caruso Dallara F301 Alfa Romeo
3 Chris Alajajian Dallara F304 Renault
4 Michael Trimble Dallara F304 Spiess Opel
5 Chris Gilmour Dallara F301 Spiess Opel
6 Ricky Occhipinti Dallara F301 Spiess Opel
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