Occasional British Formula Three competitor Ben Clucas got his Kumho Tyres Australian Formula Three career off to a perfect start after grabbing a pole position at the opening round of the championship at Wakefield Park.
Having moved down under to sign for Team BRM over the winter, Brit Clucas gifted his new employers a fast early lap that was good enough to secure pole position for the opening race of the year.
His pole position comes after Clucas dominated the practice sessions by huge margins and the 21-year-old is hoping to convert it into the ultimate debut weekend by winning the race. "The race one pole was really good. We did a couple of laps early on and then sat out the rest of the session," he said. "We were fortunate that the buffer was big enough to keep ourselves on top and get pole."
However, Clucas was not able to make it a double pole position after only managing a ‘disappointing' second place in qualifying for the second race. That honour went to Chris Alajajian, who took his first-ever pole position in his Insight-Dallara.
The Australian youngster embarked on a day of steady improvement, with his persistence paying off in the latter stages of the second session, setting a time that could not be matched.
"I'm very happy to get pole for race two," the Sydney-based driver said. "I've been basically writing an essay since the session for the crew to try and work out how to go faster, so they will be pouring over that tonight to see if we can go even better tomorrow. We certainly improved between sessions."
Scoring a pair of third place results was Michael Trimble, the Astuti Motorsport driver struggling for outright speed, although eventually getting six tenths from pole in both sessions.
Fourth in both sessions was Tim Macrow, who had a consistent day as he continued to develop his F301 – Speiss, the only 2001-model car in the top six. "We're literally the meat in the '04 sandwich," joked Macrow.
![Chris Alajajian - Protecnica Dallara-Renault [Pic credit: Richard Craill]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/187576.jpg)
