Astuti Motorsport has announced a long-term partnership with Ash Samadi that will see the team expand to a two-car championship class programme in the Australian F3 Championship.
After making his F3 debut at Oran Park recently, Samadi and Astuti motorsport will now make the step up after confirming the purchase of a new Dallara F307 chassis from British F3 team Raikkonen Robertson racing.
Samadi will contest round four of the championship at Mallala this weekend in his existing National Class Astuti Motorsport / Shell Racing Solutions Dallara F304, before stepping into the new chassis from round five of the championship at Phillip Island, in June.
The new car, which will be powered by a Renault engine, is due to arrive from Europe in the next week to allowed the team to be fully prepared for the Phillip Island weekend.
"We are thrilled to announce this long term partnership with Ash," team owner Sam Astuti said. "Ash took to the Formula 3 car like a duck to water at Oran Park and I think he surprised a lot of people. After that strong performance we began talking further and put the deal together to get a new car into the country as soon as possible.
"We will spend the remainder of this season working with him and getting the new car up to speed, with the aim of contesting for the 2008 Championship. With only one test day we had James' new car up to speed very quickly at Oran Park and the team is working around the clock to do the same for Ash.
"This is a very exciting time for Astuti Motorsport. It will be great to run two F307s in the championship and we are very happy that this is a long term program that gives our team a very strong foundation to continue the growth we have had."
Samadi said he was excited to be continuing his F3 adventure for the remainder of the year.
"It's very exciting," he said. "When Sam rang to say that he could get another '07 car in the country for me to drive it didn't take me long to say yes!
![James Winslow - Astuti Motorsport [Pic credit: RaceTorque/Klynsmith]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/433697.jpg)
