Formula Asia, also known as Asian Formula 2000, was a class of

open wheel An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

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. The formula used an Argo chassis coupled with a 16-valve Ford Zetec 1,800cc engine. There was only one championship held in Asia from 1994 until 2002, organized and promoted by Motorsport Asia Ltd. It was established to assist young Asian drivers make the transition from karting to European formulae such as Formula Ford and Formula Renault. Rounds were held in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and China. A special invitation race was also held annually at the

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. It was replaced by

Formula BMW Formula BMW was a junior racing formula for single seater cars. It was positioned at the bottom of the motorsport career ladder alongside the longer established Formula Ford category. Like Formula Ford, it was intended to function as the young k ...

Asia in 2003. Japanese female driver

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finished third in the AF2000 race at the 2002 Macau Grand Prix, becoming the first woman on the podium in the event's 50-year history. Drivers who have taken part in Formula Asia include:

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, Alex Yoong,

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, Bagoes Hermanto,

Takuma Sato , nicknamed "Taku", is a Japanese professional racing driver. Sato is a two time winner of the Indianapolis 500, having won the event in 2017 and 2020. He was the first Asian driver to win the Indianapolis 500, and the twentieth driver to win th ...

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, Parthiva Sureshwaren,

Karun Chandhok Karun Chandhok (born 19 January 1984) is an Indian racing driver and television presenter who last competed in Formula E for Mahindra Racing. Previously, Chandhok has competed for Hispania Racing in Formula One in . Before this, he drove in t ...

, Denis Lian,

Jim Ka To Jim Ka To ( zh, t=詹家圖; born 28 November 1984 in Hong Kong) is a race car driver who competed in the 2001 Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup and currently competes in the China Touring Car Championship. The son of Hong Kong street car racer ...

and

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. The cars were later used as a support class with the

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cars.

Past champions

*1996

*1997 Bagoes Hermanto *1998 Ben Walsh *1999 Nattapong Horthongkum *2000 Ng Wai-Leong *2001

*2002 Denis Lian

Macau Asian Formula 2000 Challenge winners

*1999

*2000 Philippe Descombes *2001 Philippe Descombes *2002

Watts Turns on The Power on His Way to Asian Formula 2000 Challenge Victory
49th Macau Grand Prix. Retrieved on 28 October 2011.

References

{{Class of Auto racing Formula racing Recurring sporting events established in 1994 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2002 One-make series