2009 Champion Gabby Chaves With Two More Podiums In Canada

08/30/2009

Mosport, Canada - Chaves sealed the deal on a remarkable season that saw him score the 2009 Formula BMW Americas championship, but also had the 16-year-old Colombian-American finish on the podium in every one of the series’ 14 starts this season. He was joined on the podium by Saturday’s race winner, Team Autotecnica's Gianmarco Raimondo of Canada.

“I had a really great time this year running in the Formula BMW Americas championship and much of what I learned here will help me throughout my career,” Chaves said. “Today was a good race for me, I really wanted to finish on the podium, and we were able to run hard and get a good finish.”

The second-place result from Chaves helped him maintain his season-long streak of finishing on the podium in every race, while Raimondo’s finish capped off a third-place finish in the standings for last year’s Formula BMW Americas rookie champion.

Lewis completed a come-from-behind march to winning this year’s rookie championship, as he beat Kovacic to the line by 0.05 seconds to claim fourth. The Australian Kovacic needed to finish eight points ahead of Lewis to wrest the honor away from the Californian, but Lewis clinched in style, leading a trio of rookies that included Brazilian Joao Horto, that were separated by less than two-tenths of a second at the finish line.

Formula BMW Junior Kovacic finished second in the rookie championship and was the only rookie to have won a race this year. Fellow Formula BMW Junior Canadian Alex Ellis was third in the rookie championship in Team Autotecnica, finishing just ahead of Team Apex Racing USA’s Horto.

The 1-2 finish sealed another Formula BMW Americas team championship for EuroInternational, who also won the Drivers Championship in Formula BMW Europe on Sunday, with Felipe Nasr who got his start in Americas last year at the F1 Brazil event. The team also won the rookie title for the first time in its Formula BMW Americas series history.

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