Chris Alajajian (born 31 October 1986) is an Australian-Armenian

race car driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

Early career

In 2004 he won the

Australian Production Car Championship The Australian Production Car Championship is an Australian motor racing title for production cars, sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS). The championship was first contested in 1987 and from 2008 to 2015 the title was ...

, becoming the youngest ever driver to win an Australian championship. In the same year he also contested some rounds of the

Australian Formula 3 Championship Australian Formula 3 has been the name applied to two distinctly different motor racing categories, separated by over twenty years. The original Australian Formula 3 was introduced in 1964 based on the FIA Formula 3 of the period and intended a ...

with Piccola Scuderia and raced in the Australian GT Performance Car Championship. Continuing in

Australian Formula 3 Australian Formula 3 has been the name applied to two distinctly different motor racing categories, separated by over twenty years. The original Australian Formula 3 was introduced in 1964 based on the FIA Formula 3 of the period and intended ...

in 2005, Alajajian started the year with Astuti Competition, before moving to Protecnica Racing. He finished third in the championship. Chris also won a number of races in the

Australian Performance Car Championship The Australian Performance Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of production based, high-performance coupes and sedans racing with limited modifications. It was staged as the ''Australian GT Performance Car Champ ...

with Protecnica Racing.

V8 Supercars

Alajajian moved to the

Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series The Dunlop Super2 Series (formerly known as Dunlop Series, Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series, HPDC V8 Supercars Series, Konica Minolta V8 Supercars Series and Konica V8 Supercars/Lites Series) is an Australian touring car racing competition, specifical ...

for 2006. At Bathurst on Friday 6 October 2006 Alajajian was involved in an accident that resulted in the death of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

racing driver Mark Porter. Porter's car spun in a section at the top of the mountain and was hit from behind by Alajajian and stalled, sitting sideways on the track. As fellow driver David Clark came around a blind corner he swerved to try and avoid Porter's car but slid sideways into the drivers door. Porter was airlifted to hospital with serious head and chest injuries but died in late afternoon of Sunday 8 October as the feature race was concluding. The incident was completely unavoidable as it occurred in a section of track that is blind to following drivers. He continued in the

2007 and made a one-off appearance in 2009 and 2013.

A1 Grand Prix

First Test: In August 2007, Alajajian flew to the

Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit Snetterton Circuit is a motor racing course in Norfolk, England, originally opened in 1953. Owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, it is situated on the A11 road north-east of the town of Thetford and south-west of the cit ...

in Great Britain to test for

A1 Team Lebanon A1 Team Lebanon was the Lebanese team of A1 Grand Prix, a former international racing series. Management A1 Team Lebanon's owner is Tameem Auchi. History Daniel Morad became the race driver for A1 Team Lebanon for the 2008-09 season. Alt ...

in the

A1 Grand Prix A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most for ...

series, before jetting back into Sydney in time for the fifth round of the Fujitsu V8s at

Oran Park Raceway Oran Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit at Narellan south west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia which was operational from February 1962 until its closure in January 2010. The track was designed and started by George Murray and Jac ...

, west of Sydney. The test in the 550 hp A1GP car was recognition of Alajajian's prowess behind the wheel of open-wheeled cars, finishing as high as second in the opening round of the 2007

– run in conjunction with the Australian round of the 2006–07 A1GP at

Eastern Creek Eastern Creek is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Eastern Creek is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the Blacktown local government area and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. E ...

in February 2007. Racing: Chris made his debut in the series at the Dutch round in the 2007–08 season. After missing round 2 in Brno, he raced the next 4 rounds, being in a points scoring position in New Zealand before being hit from behind, and was 2nd quickest in Rookie Qualifying at Eastern Creek.

Mini Challenge

Alajajian moved to the

Australian Mini Challenge The Australian Mini Challenge was a touring car racing category in Australia. First held in 2008, the Mini Challenge supported both the V8 Supercar Championship Series and the V8 Supercar Development Series.2008 V8 Supercars Eastern Creek round ...

later in 2009 where he finished second in the championship. His prize for that will be a trip to Spain with series champion

Paul Stokell Paul Stokell (born 8 March 1968 in Tasmania) is an Australian racing driver. Highly decorated in every category he has competed, Stokell has been a race and multiple championship winning driver in open wheel, sportscar racing and tarmac rallyin ...

to represent Australia in the Mini Challenge World Finals in early 2010. In 2010 he won the Australian Championship.

Career results

*(1) = Contested concurrently with the Australian Formula 3 Championship *(2) = Team standings.

Complete V8 Development Series results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † Not Eligible for points

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

*
Driver DataBase profile

Racing Reference profile

News articles, pictures & videos at Motorsport.com

V8 Supercars – Chris Alajajian's win at Wakefield Park Raceway
(released 1 April 2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Alajajian, Chris 1986 births A1 Team Lebanon drivers Australian Formula 3 Championship drivers Australian people of Armenian descent Living people Racing drivers from Sydney Sportsmen from New South Wales Supercars Championship drivers