A1GP

Taupo: Team Malaysia Friday notes

STEADY START FOR A1 TEAM MALAYSIA IN TAUPO The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport 2007/08 begins the New Year in Taupo with a ground breaking move to greener fuel. Today A1 Team Malaysia and the field of A1GP cars took to the New Zealand track with ...

Edited: Jan 20, 2008, 4:15 AM

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STEADY START FOR A1 TEAM MALAYSIA IN TAUPO

The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport 2007/08 begins the New Year in Taupo with a ground breaking move to greener fuel. Today A1 Team Malaysia and the field of A1GP cars took to the New Zealand track with biofuel in their tanks for the first time, the first truly global racing series to take this step.

The honour of running with the new fuel first fell to Aaron Lim for A1 Team Malaysia. The young racer, as rookie driver for the team, takes part in a Friday morning practice session at each A1GP race weekend that is reserved exclusively for young up-and-coming drivers. The session has the dual benefit of giving Lim valuable international race driving experience at a high level and providing the team with regular engineering tasks and valuable early weekend feedback on the car.

He said of his experience of the Taupo circuit, "It's quite a difficult track to learn, with many corners in a short lap. It's also very narrow, so if you make a small mistake you're off the track or spinning. However it is very good for me to have the chance to drive on so many different kinds of track and this one is definitely a challenge for me."

In the afternoon Yoong took over the wheel of the A1 Team Malaysia car and quickly got to work with the team to start preparations for the races ahead. He made steady progress during the session and was confident that there was more improvements to make tomorrow. Finishing 14th quickest, having turned 27 timed laps during the hour of running, Yoong said at the conclusion of the day, "We're only a second off pole, so that's okay. We've had a fairly positive day. With every change that we made the car reacted well, but there's still a lot more we can do with the car to make it quicker. The new corner definitely helps make this track more conducive to overtaking. It's an exciting track to drive, with the car hopping all over the place, going off the track is all too easy -- and dusty!"

Jack Cunningham, Chief Executive of the team adds, "It's been a steady start for the team. Aaron, as always, played an important role this morning and Alex and the engineering team are confident that there is better to come for tomorrow. We're comfortable with the performance today, but of course we'll be looking to break into the top ten in the qualifying sessions tomorrow."

The A1GP event in Taupo, New Zealand continues tomorrow with final practice and qualifying ahead of Sunday's race. Yoong will return to the track with the A1 Team Malaysia car for all of these sessions and his progress can be followed at www.a1teammalaysia.com.my.

-credit: a1teammalaysia.com.my

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