Goddard dominates Subic leg, captures AF3 drivers’ title

SUBIC Bay, – Mark Goddard of Great Britain, driving for Castrol Ambi Pur Team Goddard, kept his composure through a chaotic start and used his remarkable race sense to take his seventh win and capture the Formula 3 drivers’ title in the 2002 Asian Formula Challenge at the Subic International Raceway over the weekend.

Goddard, who started from second at the green light, wisely held station at Turn One where the cars of Shell Racing Team’s Pepon Marave and pole sitter and Casino Filipino Team Tom’s Zed driver Jojo Silverio had a coming together. Marave lost part of his front wing but the two drivers managed to continue. At almost same instant, the Formula Toyota’s of Mandy Borja, Jeremy Marquez, Joel Retuya and Roland Hermoso were involved in a pile-up that eliminated Borja, Marquez and Retuya. The twin incidents brought out the red flag.

At the restart, Silverio led Marave and Goddard until the second turn where his car stopped and retired. Marave thereafter took the lead only to drop three positions down a few corners later when he ran onto a slippery patch. Marave retired a few laps later after his engine overheated.

With a clear road ahead of him, Goddard drove with his trademark smoothness to cross the finish line 5.5 seconds ahead of the pack.

Asian Formula Renault Champion Enzo Pastor came home in second place. However, he was disqualified after his car failed a mandatory, post-race air leak test. Thus, the second place was awarded to Denso JF3 Racing’s Richard Joson and third went to TRP Team Oxygen’s JP Tuason.

The event is sponsored by the New Pagcor, Casino Filipino, Department of Tourism, Philippine Tourism Authority, SBMA, Red Horse Beer, FedEx, San Miguel Beer, Swatch, Petron, and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.