Lee wins strange AF3 10th round

Vertex Motorsports’ Marchy Lee overcame a strange chain of events to capture the 10th round of the 2002 Asian Formula Challenge, organized by the Malaysian Motor Sports Club, Asian Formula 3 Corp., and Formula racing Development, at the Sepang F1 Circuit in Malaysia.

Lee, who is celebrating his 26th birthday in two days, bucked two restarts and the encroaching darkness to win on aggregate time on the 5.542-kilometer circuit. Even stranger is the fact that Lee didn’t take the checkered flag at the line. The honor went to Frenchman and FRD harbour View driver Philippe Descombes.

No one expected the string of incidents that unfolded on the track. Marchy executed a less than perfect start off the line but still managed to hold Descombes off at the first corner. The leading pair was then followed by Mark Goddard of Castrol Team Goddard with Korean Dong Wook Lee of E-Rain Racing in tow. At the end of the second lap, Marchy had built up a 3-second lead, which was steadily increasing. Just as he was about to complete Lap 3, Formula Renault driver Kenneth Ma spun and stalled on a critical and difficult portion of the course, which forced Clerk of Course Jeff Amin to bring out the Red Flag.

After a 10-minute delay, the race was restarted and, immediately, chaos erupted when American David Louie tabled with Samson Chan at the line. At the same moment, the Formula Renaults of Dick Lau, Siu Tit Lung, Ken Lau and Michael Choi touched wheels and triggered a pile-up. The resulting mass of twisted cars and debris clogged the main straight and prompted another restart. Again, the race was delayed for another 20 minutes.

With a few minutes of daylight left, the field was finally unleashed with Marchy leading the pack through the first corner followed by Goddard and Descombes. A few corners later, Descombes went past Goddard before dispatching of Marchy near the end of the lap. With darkness setting in, the clerk of course wisely brought down the checkered flag on Lap 6 – four laps short of the original race distance – with Descombes in the lead, Marchy in second and Goddard in third.

Following the rules, the times of each driver in between the stoppages were added and the results established that Marchy Lee, who had a total of 15:02.5, was the official winner of the Asian Formula 3 race, followed by Goddard (15:04.5) and Descombes (15:08.6).

In the Asian Formula Renault, Henry Lee Jr. of Hong Kong took his fourth win in the series. Second place went to Japan’s Jun Harata, while Filipino Enzo Pastor’s third place finish allowed him to close the gap to Cheng.

The next two rounds of the 2002 Asian Formula Challenge will be held at the Pasier Gudang Circuit in Johore, Malaysia on Sept. 27, after which the series will return to Subic Bay in the Philippines on Oct. 27 for the final leg, which is promoted by Colby Ventures, Inc. in cooperation with FedEx, PLDT, Philippine Tourism Authority, Department of Tourism, Gift Gate SWATCH, Subic Bay Management Authority, RX 93.1, Crossover 105.1, Joey 92.3, Red Horse Beer, Petron, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Casino Filipino and Pagcor.