Adam arrived in Adelaide having not even seen the new ASM Ford Falcon AU let alone sat in the seat or turned a wheel, the new Falcon is the sister car to ASM’s #4 red Falcon of last year’s BritCar 24 Hours at Silverstone. Both cars were bought from the Howard Racing Team, one of ASM’s new competitors and friends in the Fujitsu Series.

Adam was able to get out on the circuit in the team’s rental van for a few pre-race laps to accustom himself to an obviously exciting and gruelling street race track. This was important as we had been warned that in places the Clipsal circuit provided very little run off and for the most part was lined by concrete wall on both sides of the track.

Adam seemed excited saying, “I can’t wait to get a run on this circuit in the Falcon, it looks tough but a lot of fun!”

The car was fired up a ready to go on the morning of Thursday 23rd March; Adam was out for his first look at both the Falcon and the street circuit. He went well and was acclimatising to all the new factors quickly. He put in a time of 1 minute 31 seconds; this put him in 27th out of 33 cars. A good start for Adam and the team, there was one further practice session due in the afternoon and then qualifying to follow on Friday morning. The second practice saw Adam better the first session by 2-3 seconds ad pushed the AU up the timings and closer to the quickest cars in the lower 50% of the field.

On to qualifying, the way this was run to enable more cars to be running with clear air ahead of them was to split the field in half. First out were the lower 50% (17 cars in all), Adam was really getting a handle on the car now and with some minor adjustments made to the set up by Alan Stoodley (ASM Engineer), the team were confident that Adam would finish up with a good grid position. We were all right, Adam drove excellently pulling his laps times down significantly, eventually posting a best of 1 min 26 seconds, it was a case of 10ths making the difference for places and the competition was fierce. Adam sat the ASM Falcon 22nd on the grid a great effort to jump up 5 places from the initial practice session on Thursday.

The race was that evening, the sun was setting very quickly and we were anticipating some tricky spots on the circuit where the drivers would be forced to look directly towards the sunset. It was going to make for an interesting sprint. Adam got a good start, pulling himself through the field up three places to 19th. Going very well until lap 7 of 24, Adam unfortunately got onto some dirt thrown down by the previous car and had some serious over steer to deal with which saw him loose a few places as the close train of cars got a better run into turn 1. Not to be denied, Adam set about reclaiming his 19th position and in fact across the next 8 laps he climbed again and found his way to 16th, a jubilant ASM pit was cheering. However, a crash occurred and a safety car soon appeared, this was very convenient as Adam had been complaining of something being wrong on the left side of the car and this turned out to be a loose exhaust pipe which was causing sparks on contact with the tarmac leading to a Marshall showing us a black flag (enforced pit stop). The team acted fast, tied up the exhausts and got Adam out again before the pace car re-emerged. Adam joined the train and two more racing laps enabled him to retain 19th position. An excellent result, we were all overjoyed to have seen Adam take a top 20 in his first outing.

The second race was an early start on Saturday, the team was buzzing from the events of the day before and an even more advanced grid position (taken from the first race finishing position) gave everyone reason to be excited about the next race. The car had needed a few minor changes and the exhausts had been well secured, it was ready for another good race. It started well with Adam again making ground on his competitors; he was elevated to 16th, his highest position held in both races. Unfortunately, after a few laps Adam started to see the engine temperature steadily increase and as a result he was forced to let the engine suck in the clearer cooler air off the racing line and this saw him surrender racing line and precious metres of advantage. This continued for a couple of laps until Adam entered the pits complaining of power loss in the Falcon, a few checks by the team and he was back out. However, this was all to no avail as the car was still only performing at 75% power, both Adam and Alan Stoodley decided that it was best for the longevity of the engine to bring it in so as not to risk any major damage. The race resulted in a disappointing DNF but the Clipsal 500 had been a major triumph for the team as getting there and being involved was the major motivator and the fact that Adam took a top 20 finish and was as highly placed at 16th in both races, it was a fantastic start for the team in what has shaped up to be an excellent and thriving competition.

“A great start to the series for the Aussie ASM team; we all worked well and showed the AU can do the business. Regular testing in Australia is difficult for me to fit in as I also have major commitments in Europe this season, but hopefully I will be able to run the car out before the next round. The racing is awesome here and I can’t wait to return in May!”