... and the upper Midwest, Northeast and the Rockies are "enjoying" temps in the 30's and 40's. There is a lack of snowfall, but what is more important is the lack of auto racing. NASCAR has folded its tent after the roast beef/fried chicken shindig in NYC. Formula One has long since passed into the history books and we are left with F1 testing tidbits from Spain. And the World of Outlaws action is still a month away with its opener in Australia.

But never fear your intrepid reporter has braved all the elements to bring you results of Asian Formula 3 final round action held at Batangas Racing Circuit, Batangas, Philippines. As the accompanying photos show (via AF3 "Babes" collection) the elements were pure hell and made the 30km drive from home a task in itself. With temps in the eighties, (thank goodness the Pajero's A/C survived the arduous trip) under a very "Christmas like" (Philippine style) and scorchingly bright sun I made the trip in search of racing babes err.. bikini's, ah.. journalistic excellence, oh yea it was, a tall cold San Miguel and a little racing action.

The final two rounds of AF3 action saw the coveted title up for grabs as Ireland's John O'Hara led Australia's Christian Jones (son of former F1 Champion Alan) by a mere 3 points. With 20 markers awarded to the winner of each segment (15 for second) the most obvious route to the Championship was a sweep of both races. Added to that was a stating grid that featured O'Hara on the pole and Jones trailing in second.

Round 9
The start of round 9 saw O'Hara with a marginally better start than Jones and O'Hara doing his best Schumacheresque blocking manuver (and a prelude to disaster) as he moved right blocking Jones going into the first right hander. The Irishman's lead was never seriously challenged while maintaining a 1 second lead thru lap 6 then slowly advancing to a 10 second win and 8 point lead in the Championship.

Third place went to Ananda Mikola. Oliver Turvey finished an impressive fourth overall and first in Promotions Class. John Pettit was fifth and Tyson Sy sixth. '03 Series Champion Mark Goddard, who battled the flu all weekend, finished seventh ahead of Richard Joson and Moreno Soeprapto who finished third in Promotions Class. Miura and Pepon Marave rounded out the top ten with the Pastor brothers completing the finishers, Enzo beating Don.

Hear that? I guess not, it's the calm before the storm.

Round 10
The 10^th round lineup was in order of finish of round 9 again placing O'Hara on the pole and Jones second. As the lights went out it was Jones who had a Schumacher like start, (only this time Tony or Don) and nailed the start as he pulled alongside O'Hara to the right. In an effort to reprise his first race manuver O'Hara moved sharply right. The move was so poorly timed his right front wheel made hard contact with Jones mid way and directly beside the drivers tub. Both cars in veered right, then hard left and came to rest against the Grandstand retaining wall. With both title challengers out, and O'Hara holding a 5 point lead after round 9 action it would appear that he had the Championship sewed up. But there is more to follow.

After the dust had settled Ananda Mikola went on to survive a late race charge by newcomer John Pettit, who with four laps left pushed to hard and sailed off into the turn 4 armmco. Local Filipino favorite Tyson Sy took second with Marave charging from a tenth place start to a place on the podium in third.

End result of the days action and the Championship? Dammed if I know. Asian Formula 3 is reporting John O'Hara has received a $10,000 fine for the round 10 start and Christian Jones has won the AF3 crown by a margin of 5 points!. My limited math skills tell me at the start of the day Jones is trailing by 3 points and 8 points after round 9. If both the O'Hara and Jones machines fail to finish round 10 the aformentioned skills instruct that Jones wins the Championship by 8 points.

At this point I have not located any other sources, including unanswered calls to the track and AF3 offices, to shed anymore light on the ruling. The Philippines have a saying that is used to describe many of the unusual events that occur here. I suppose it's application would be appropriate here: "Only in the Philippines!"

There are other awards that were handed out after Sunday's action. Tyson Sy takes the Promotion Class Championship and the AF3 Promotions Driver of the Year Award. The now embrioled in controversy, John O’Hara will receive the AF3 Driver of the Year Award. And not to be outdone by the "official awards" I have my own selections to hand out.

Most Embarrassing Moment

A tie between track officials and round 9 winner John O'Hara. As O'Hara took his customary place on the top step to receive his accolades the Irish National anthem started and the flag of his origin was raised behind the podium. Only is wasn't the Irish ensign, it was the Australian flag of second place finisher Christian Jones. Nice, real nice. Jones tied for the award, not for his boneheaded round 10 shunt, but again on the round 9 podium. The traditional spraying of "the bubbly" never occured on Jones' part. He never got the cork removed from the bottle. The sheepish look on his face was pricless as his podium mates emptied their bottles and he was left with a keepsake to return to Ireland with. Which is all well and good I suppose, at 19 years of age he hasn't reached the "legal" drinking age.

If by some quirk of fate I receive new info on the reasons behind AF3's and the FIA's odd round 10 and Championship ruling I will update this post.

Cross posted @ Full Throttle - In the draft, and filling your mirror.