Aaron Lim finished 5th in round eight of the Asian F.BMW Series held at the Goldenport Circuit, Beijing. Team mates Dejan de Zoysa were 7th and Jonathan Chan 8th.
Round seven was held on Sunday morning in front an extremely large crowd, traffic was brought to a standstill for several kilometers at one point. Lim was barged down the field in turn one and it was Dejan who led the Minardi cars. Despite being team mates they battled hard for position but once by Lim pulled away and quickly began to catch Robert Boughey. “I missed a couple of gears and that allowed Robert to pull away” reported Lim. Dejan then had an uneventful race to the flag.
The same could not be said of Jonathan Chan who had battled his way past Chinese drivers Wang Jian Wei and Xu Jia when he spun at turn three. Now last by a long way he pushed as hard as he could and caught Ao Chi Hong, forcing his way past at turn one. He then ran out time in his efforts to make up any more places.
The race was won by Michael Patrizi, who overtook race long leader Khalifa on the final lap. Patrizi’s joy was short lived as he was judged to have jumped the start and given a 30 second penalty, dropping him to 8th place. Hamad and Charlie Charlez completed the podium with Ebrahim and An Suk Won in 4th and 5th places.
Round eight was led by off the line by Khalifa followed by Patrizi and Hamad. The latter soon found a way past the Australian and the two Bahraini drivers started to drop him. Strangely Khalifa was black flagged for a jump start and was forced to pit for a stop go penalty. He finished 9th. Hamad made a mistake with a few laps to go allowing Patrizi past but he quickly re-took the lead and just held the Australian off for a fine victory. An Suk Won and Ebrahim battled for third, the Korean just making the podium whilst Aaron Lim forced his way past Boughey at turn one and then held off the ex-Minardi driver for fifth place. Dejan had initially kept up with Lim and Boughey but as the race wore on he was slowly dropped. It was still a fine effort for the novice driver. Jonathan Chan finished a great eight after once again entertaining with some fine battles with the Chinese drivers. He passed Wang at turn three after the pair banged wheels on the exit of the corner.
Next round is Taebaek in Korea and the team is hoping the drivers can continue their improvement. Aaron Lim now has a mere three events under his belt with Dejan and Jonathan not so far behind in the experience stakes.
