The Axe impresses at Maylasian GP event

08 Apr 2009 | 09:43 AM | There are 4 Comments

The opening round of the 2009 Formula BMW Pacific championship was a support race to the Petronas Grand Prix of Malaysia at the impressive Sepang circuit.

It was a big day in Axcil Jefferies career as it marked his circuit racing debut and he mingled with Grand Prix stars for the weekend.

As a BMW scholarship winner, he was driving for the Eurasia team and throughout testing he'd proven fast. He wasn't too unhappy to have qualified sixth fastest even though he'd been running near the top of the time sheets for much of the session, before being pushed down the order in the final minutes. Nevertheless, he would be starting the second race from fourth on the grid.

Saturday's race was a closely fought affair and Jefferies finished hot on the heels of Rio Haryanto after a spirited drive saw him fend off the advances Sofyan before pulling away to a safe fourth place in what can only be regarded as an impressive car racing debut.

Winner was Gary Thompson with Chris Wootton, Haryanto and Jefferies crossing the line in quick succession.

"Axcil has now got his first race under his belt and will start two places further up the grid tomorrow and he knows he can finish on the podium", said Team Manager, Mark Goddard.

Sunday's race was delayed by a storm and was held on a dryish track with wet patches to catch the unwary. Jefferies judged his start to perfection. He was up to second behind Wootton at turn 1 and then grabbed the lead before the lap was over when the Australian encountered water on the track at the final turn.

However, the youngster's lead was brief, with Haryanto charging past after a tense but fair battle. It ended unhappily a few corners later when he was hit in the rear by a hard-charging Calvin Wong.

At the end of the shortened race it was Haryanto ahead of Wootton and Thompson.

"It was a steep learning curve and luckily, because the race was shortened to five laps only half points were awarded," said Jefferies. "I learnt so much and now I know what to expect in a single seater race. It was great having such a motivated and professional team like Eurasia around me and I felt proud racing with the GO-GP.ORG branding on my car."

Next event is the Asian Festival of Speed at Sepang in May.