The AFR season 2009 will get underway on the March 21 st and 22 nd at the Zhuhai International Circuit (ZIC), China, with a non-championship event.

Once again, the prestigious AFR championship has all the ingredients to become the most successful formula championship in Asia. Based on the co-operative experience developed, FRD and ZIC will continue to work together to promote the championship in 2009. The first series' race of the year, a non-scoring event, will be part of the weekend's race program of the outstanding Pan Delta Super Racing Festival, organized and promoted by ZIC.  

Who will succeed Jim Kato as champion? In the past eight years, AFR has been a stepping-stone for aspiring drivers looking to progress their careers to higher categories. With the hope of experiencing an even better season this year, the series organization is pleased to announce the list of teams confirmed for 2009;  Asia Racing Team (ART) Motorsports, Champ Motorsport, GhiaSports, Modena Motorsports, PTRS and Galaxy FRD Racing Team. Two other teams are currently in talks with the organization and are expected to join the championship with names to be announced in a later stage. For Zhuhai's race, AFR is expecting an amazing grid of at least 22 cars.

Kumho, one of the world's leading tyre manufacturers, and the AFR, the Asian's most competitive young-gun series, continue their exclusive partnership in 2009. Twelve races will decide the championship title, and the first scoring meeting of the 2009 season will be held in Bira, Thailand. AFR series races will be also take place at Shanghai and Chengdu.

AFR Series Director Paul Hui said "In these turbulent times of economic crisis all over the world, AFR organizer is delighted to be working positively with ZIC and other motorsport entities in Asia to make an exciting contribution to the sport. AFR is a fantastic environment for young drivers to develop their skills and FR 2.0 is the proper formula to develop the next Asian Formula One drivers. The return of a single FR 2.0 championship in Asia has created a lot of excitement and it is great everything is back to normal. The drivers are going to get seat time at some of the best tracks in Asia, and we will be involved with some high-profile events, so we are looking forward to the season” .