Former Eurasia Motorsport drivers shined over the weekend with Daniel Ricciardo winning in Renault 3.5, Kimiya Sato taking a race win in the European F3 Series and Richard Bradley attaining a podium finish in his first F3 race.
Ricciardo raced with Eurasia in the 2006 Formula BMW Asia Series whilst Kimiya Sato drove for the team in the 2008 F.BMW Macau GP support race, finishing third. Sato is part of the Nissan Driver Development Program and along with compatriot, Katsumasa Chiyo, undertook training in the Eurasia Dallara F3 car at Sepang in 2009. Chiyo won the N-Class in the second round of the All-Japan F3 Championship held at Suzuka over the weekend.
2010 Formula BMW Pacific Champion, Richard Bradley, finished third and fourth in the two F3 races held at Suzuka. Driving for the works TOM’S Team he lacked testing miles at Suzuka but still managed to take third place in only the 7th car racing event of his career. Unfortunately he stalled at the start of race two and did well to drive back through the field to finish fourth.
Also out at the weekend was Kotaro Sakurai who took mamimum points in the National Class in the second British race held at Snetterton.
“I believe once again our graduates are proving the worth of our junior Formula race and test programs. When our drivers go on to further success it gives us a lot of satisfaction” reported Eurasia’s Mark Goddard. “It was also a good weekend for our friends at the Nissan Driver Development Program and we hope that our training at Sepang with them helped a little in achieving the good results.”
The current crop of young drivers will race again on May 28-29 in rounds 3-6 of the JK Racing Asia Series at the Asian Festival of Speed event on the Sepang F1 Circuit in Malaysia. There is no reason why one of this year’s crop, Aaron Chang, Duvashen Padayachee, Natasha Seatter or Pasin Lathouras cannot join Daniel Ricciardo in F1 in a few years from now.
