AP: ART Motorsports Shanghai summary

Philippine rising star puts in "great drive" on Formula Renault debut with ART

Former Philippine karting prodigy Mark Bumgarner made his Formula Renault 2.0 debut for Asia Racing Team (ART) Motorsports in China at the Shanghai International Circuit. The 16 years old newcomer driver was an impressive 3rd best Asian driver in the Race 2 of the latest round of 2007 Asian Formula Renault Challenge.

Encouraged that he was getting faster with each practice session, Bumgarner's progress continued throughout the two races on Sunday. Race 1 saw Bumgarner starting 11th on the grid for his first ever single seater race. A good move after the green light was enough to overtake several opponents. Later in the race Bumgarner catch up the Chinese Formula Renault old hand Jim Kato. The Philippines motorsport rising star had no choice but to try to take him from the outside at the hairpin which would be an astonished manoeuvre. Unfortunately ART Motorsports rookie picked up the dirty line and spun out on the grass.

In the Race 2 the Macanese China based team new driver enjoyed a strong race to cross the line in the 3rd position of the Asian drivers. With a perfect car in hands Mark did a far-fetched race to finish in 9th, and was much faster than the two guys in front of him but decided not to take any risk as he really wanted to finish his first race. Team Manager Philippe Descombes was equally happy with the Mark results and the team's progress as a whole.

ART Motorsports Philippe Descombes commented: "Mark did well today. I'm really impressed. He has continued to make progress and this was demonstrated with 3rd Asian best placed driver in the 2nd race. He was quite brave fighting with much more experienced drivers. I think based on what we have seen this weekend Mark could be very competitive next year in Formula Renault 2.0".

-credit: art-motorsports.com