The 17-year-old Bumgarner, who’s backed up here by Spectrum OSO Asia, Petron, Department of Tourism, Oakley, City Kart and Solar Sports, even proved his great potentials in formula racing when he posted the fastest laptimes in both races up that really impressed race officials and fellow competitors as well.

Except for Mark, the other drivers in the Top 15 list were already on their second season of racing in the event, and Bumgarner’s feat of bagging a third place podium finish and two fastest laptimes were quite a rare feat for a rookie in the said series.

He hit the fastest laptime at 2:07.069 or 92.643 miles per hour in Lap 4 of Race One and clocked a faster laptime of 2:07.500 or 92.329 miles per hour in Lap 2 of the Final Race.

Following that feat, Bumgarner is now 10th overall with 63 points after four races in the 14-round series.

Robbie Montinola, a Filipino-American racecar driver who won 2002 Skip Barber Western Championship and awarded the Most Improved Driver that same year, expressed high hopes on Mark’s campaign in this series.

"Mark continues to show he has the skills necessary to be a successful racer. He improves every session and has shown he has the speed to win races in an ultra-competitive international series. Mark has the ability to receive feedback and directly apply it in the racecar. It's been a pleasure working with him so far and look forward in helping him capture more podiums finishes and his first pro win," said Montinola, driver coach for up-and-coming racers and now a Skip Barber Racing School an instructor who competed in the Formula BMW USA and Star Mazda championships.

"Mark worked hard all weekend long. He qualified strong with a 9th place effort and made a great start in Race 1. He had an off-course excursion that dropped him back to 15th, but with patience he worked his way back up to take the checkered flag in 3rd. In race 2, Mark had another great start and was in a train of 12 cars for the lead. Unfortunately, he went off in the same corner later in the race and couldn't make up as much ground. But he still managed to have the fastest lap of the race and show he has the speed to run with the leaders. With more seat time, Mark will continue to develop his race craft and be fighting for race wins for the rest of the season," Montinola added.

As with all the drivers in the series, Bumgarner will be part of an upcoming TV reality series dubbed as “Victory Lane … Every Helmet Holds A Story”, a 13-episode, 90-minute documentary on the making of a Formula One Driver.

Over the course of the eight months of filming, Victory Lane will give these skilled drivers the opportunity to be mentored by famous race car drivers, cross trained by high endurance professionals and presented with competitive challenges to earn their place at the checkered flag.

The shows will be aired on cable networks such as USA, Discovery, Bravo, or the History Channel, which all have over 90 million potential viewers. The target launch date is set for either September 2008 or January 2009. International distribution for Victory Lane in Great Britain and several South America countries are already in negotiation.