30/01/2008
NEWS STORY
A1 Team Lebanon joins 22 competing nations in this weekend's sixth round of the A1GP Championship held at the Eastern Creek Circuit, Sydney. Lebanon will once again call upon the services of Australian–Lebanese driver Chris Alajajian (right) to race, after narrowly missing out on scoring the team's first point's last time out in Taupo, New Zealand.
Last time out the Lebanon car was up to 10th in the Sprint Race and looking set its first points in the World Cup of Motorsport, but disaster struck, with Alajajian the innocent victim of an incident which saw the Lebanese car spinning out of the points. This weekend the Lebanese team will be looking to repeat their pace and run within the top ten to finally get their elusive first point. Over 300,000 Lebanese live in Australia, with strong communities around Sydney, so A1 Team Lebanon will be looking for the advantage of home support during the weekend's races.
The Eastern Creek Raceway is 3.93km long and runs in an anti-clockwise direction. The track flows through landscaped hills, creating a variety of tight bends followed by long straights, presenting a challenging circuit that offers various opportunities for overtaking.
Alajajian has raced previously at the Eastern Creek Circuit in Sydney during his time in the Australian Formula 3 Championship. He currently holds the lap record around the circuit in a Formula 3 car, and in 2007 he raced in the A1GP support race, so he already has the taste of race day atmosphere.
Chris Alajajian commented ahead of the weekend, "I'm really excited about racing at Eastern Creek this weekend, to think just a year ago I was there as part of the support races, it is just a dream come true to be there again racing in A1GP. The team and I were really disappointed to miss out on getting a point in Taupo, but I'm really aiming to get one at Eastern Creek. This race is the next best thing to having a Lebanese home race for me, we have lots of supporters in Australia and I'm really hoping to see the Cedar Tree being waved in the grandstands this weekend."
Luke Craft, Team Principal, A1 Team Lebanon added, "This weekend we really are hoping that we will get at least one point on the tally, after running well during the last race and being so close to getting a point, we really feel it's close to happening. It will greatly benefit us this weekend that Chris has experience racing on this track, his knowledge will be very important to the team and hopefully will give us a good chance come race day."
During the week A1 Team Lebanon held their annual Karting Challenge Trophy in the run up to the weekends racing. 100 fans joined drivers, Khalil Beschir and Chris Alajajian, as well as A1 Team Lebanon team members, to vie for victory in the highly competitive event, part of the build up to this weekend's Eastern Creek race.