Round 8 – A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Sentul, Indonesia Qualified: 8th / Sprint Race Finish: DNF / Feature Race Finish: 1st / Series standing: 10th

Courtesy Stuart Morrison Public Relations

12th February 2006 – A stunning flat-out performance from the back of the field today saw Sean McIntosh reward A1 Team Canada with their first ever A1 Grand Prix of Nations victory in Round 8 of the inaugural ‘World Cup of Motorsport’, hosted at the Sentul International Circuit in Indonesia.

The 20-year-old Vancouver racer, having retired on the opening lap of the Sprint event, bounced back in style in this afternoon’s Feature race, storming through the field from last on the grid, overcoming a drive through penalty in the process, to claim A1 Team Canada’s maiden A1GP win before a sell-out Indonesian crowd.

Sprint Race, 18-laps (Winner – A1 Team France, Nicolas Lapierre)
From eighth on the grid Sean sprinted off the line to snatch a couple of positions at the first corner. His race ended prematurely however just two turns later. Contact with the rear of A1 Team Malaysia’s entry, piloted by Alex Yoong, at the third turn broke the track rod and steering arm of the A1 Team Canada Lola-Zytek, the Canadian challenge ending in retirement on the first lap.

Feature Race, 36-laps (Winner – A1 Team Canada, Sean McIntosh)
Starting from the back of the grid courtesy of being first to retire in the Sprint race, Sean wasted little time in hustling the Canadian car back up the order. Sitting tenth after the opening lap he peeled off into the pits for his mandatory stop as the safety car deployed on lap two. No sooner was he back on track than he found himself back in pit-lane taking a drive through penalty having been squeezed over the exit line by A1 Team USA in the race to rejoin the action following the first stops. Bumped back down the field Sean set to work with one of the quickest cars on the track.

A gutsy series of lap-after-lap overtaking moves, passing the likes of the USA, Netherlands, Brazil, Switzerland and Australia lifted Sean back into the top-ten and hungry for more. Climbing to fourth at the half-way marker Sean darted by Tomas Enge in the Czech Republic car at the third re-start to take third overall but with Great Britain and South Africa ahead still to make their pit stops he effectively seized the lead of the race. With two laps remaining Sean officially assumed the lead and duly powered his way to the checkered flag to take A1 Team Canada’s maiden victory.

Sean McIntosh:
“This is unbelievable! It was an honor to be on the top step of the podium singing ‘Oh Canada’. The team did a great job and I want to thank them and Wade Cherwayko for the opportunity to race for A1 Team Canada. It certainly wasn’t an easy victory but it sure feels good! We made some changes to the car between races as we felt we had nothing to lose starting from the back. With Patrick Carpentier taking over for Canada in the next two rounds I wanted to leave with a strong performance. I’ve set the standard pretty high and hopefully the team can take this momentum forward to Mexico.”

Monterrey, Mexico hosts Round 9 of the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, 24-26 February 2006.

Standings: 1st France (132), 2nd Switzerland (104), 3rd Brazil (70), 4th Great Britain (68), 5th New Zealand (61), 6th Netherlands (53), 7th Ireland (50), 8th Portugal (50), 9th Malaysia (49), 10th Canada (42)

For more info visit http://www.a1teamcan.com/ or www.a1gp.com.