A motorsport competition can’t get competitive enough, and Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia proved this at Sepang in Malaysia as the No. 88 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes AMG GT3 and the No. 911 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3R had to overcome tough competition to win this weekend’s double header.
Absolute Racing locked the front row but the No. 99 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes found a way past their Porsche barrier and conquered the lead, though Darryl O’Young still had the No. 911 Absolute Porsche, the No. 918 Panther-AAS Porsche and the No. 912 Absolute Porsche right behind him.
After 5 minutes of Safety Car intervention, O’Young still had to deal with more pressure, and not only that, all drivers had the rain as an unwanted guest coming strong with 15 minutes of racing, which forced some cars to change to wet tires. The No. 99 got room to breathe when the No. 911 got caught by contact and spun, but there was still a big pack behind O’Young.
Soon the pressure would be too much to handle for the No. 99, so O’Young overshot the final corner and let the No. 999 TSRT Audi get in the lead with Weian Chen. The No. 999 was just opening the gap while the rest of the pack was on fire, and proof of this was the overtake for second from the No. 97 Indigo Mercedes, with Roelof Bruins being not affraid of doing it three-wide at the final hairpin.
Rain tire strategy unsettled many teams at halfway point as the track wasn’t completely wet, which at a given moment even promoted a GT4 car to the overall lead, though the brave ones that kept the slicks on gained with their decisions. The No. 97 kept the lead but was losing ground, and with 3 minutes to go the No. 88 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes took the lead with help of the GT4 traffic, with things staying like this until the checkered flag. While the No. 88 took the overall and Pro-Am Cup wins, the No. 97 was the Silver Cup winner.
The No. 51 AMAC Lamborghini got a good race to the Am Cup win, and so did the No. 81 Studie BMW to the GT4 class win.
On Race 2 the track was clearly dry, and the Porsches were dominating from first to fourth, starting with the No. 918 Panther-AAS car. A 10 minute Safety Car period was called due to fire on the No. 999 TSRT Audi, but the Porsche 1-2-3-4 was kept as it was.
While the Panther-AAS entry was opening the gap in front, the Modena Motorsports car was holding the No. 912 from Absolute Racing, but on the pit window half of the Porsches in front was left behind, with the No. 918 leading the No. 911, while the No. 13 Absolute Audi was under pressure in third with the No. 99 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes and the No. 12 Absolute Audi right behind it, eventually succeeding in the overtakes.
The Porsche battle between Thai drivers raged on until the moment that Tanart Sathienthirakul found a way past Vuttikorn Inthraphuvasak, putting the No. 911 Absolute car in the lead with 6 minutes to go, and with Sathienthirakul pushing hard to keep the lead, the No. 911 crossed the finish line in front of the No. 918, which won the Pro-Am Cup, while the No. 99 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes completed the overall podium.
Thailand Super Series outfit B-Quik Racing took Am Cup honors in the No. 26 Audi while the No. 81 Studie BMW dominated the GT4 class again, despite having success penalty carried from the first race.
The next Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia destination will be the Chang International Circuit in Thailand, on May 11th and 12th, with some of the teams feeling at home as they race at national level there.
PHOTOS: SRO
Comments
Post a Comment
Do you have an opinion? Feel free to comment.