Bangkok--3 Mar--Stuvik Racing
This weekend saw intense testing for the EuroFormula Open Winter Series prior to the season's opening winter race on the 1st of March. The Formula 3 cars have for 2014 been upgraded with a new and considerably faster engine and many teams struggeled with teething problems during the first sessions. Thai racer Sandy Stuvik worked with his Italian team, RP Motorsport to overcome the challenges and by race day the team felt well prepared.
The winter series started with a qualifying session at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France, and although the track saw a clear blue sky, the chilling winds and 10 degrees kept all the spectators well clothed. Stuvik immediately started setting fast times and by the end he brought his time down to 2:00:750, a full 3 seconds faster than last years car and likely a new Formula 3 record time for the circuit. The time would well and truly put the Thai racer on pole position.
As the red lights went out for the start of the race, Stuvik had a poor start and immediately lost 2 positions. The Italian, Giovesi and Japan's Kanamaru shot past him. However, with the cold weather, Stuvik allowed the tires to build temperature before challenging the two front runners. By the second lap coming out of the first chicane, Stuvik lined up the Japanese driver, got passed and moved up to second place. By this time Giovesi had gained a hundred meter lead and although clearly faster, it would take the Thai racer 7 laps to catch up. On lap 9 coming out of the second chicane, Stuvik went on the outside of the Italian and managed to get ahead before the fast sweeping corner 10 and immediately stretched his lead. From there on until the checkered flag on lap 14, the Thai driver was unchallenghed and took a dominating victory, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process.
The Thai racer Sandy Kraokaew Stuvik is still searching for more sponsor partners to launch a bid towards the top level GP2 series and took the winter series as a chance to gauge his performance and readiness for the 2014 racing season.