The decision of the 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia season came down to the last weekend, with Korean driver MG Choi from Indigo Racing celebrating a the overall title after the Chinese double header. BMW Team Studie will return to Japan with another GT4 title, thanks to Sunako Jukuchou.
The green flag for Race 1 was delayed to as closer to the start line as possible, and Absolute Racing took advantage of the fact that they were controlling the front row, with the No. 12 Audi getting the lead and having a decent gap over the No. 911 Porsche. A crash for the No. 8 ARN Porsche was responsible for neutralizing the field with the first full course yellow, which lasted around eight minutes.
Most of the top cars opted for early stops when the window opened, with the No. 911 Absolute Porsche and No. 27 HubAuto Ferrari staying longer. After the end of the pit window the No. 12 Absolute Audi was dominating by a good margin to the No. 27 and the No. 911, while the No. 97 Indigo Mercedes was sitting in fourth and having a battle with the stewards as the car was on the brink of receiving a penalty for exceeding track limits.
The gap just increased for the No. 12 in the final moments, and the Audi never got threatened to lose its top position.
The Pro-Am Cup win went for the No. 918 Panther AAS Porsche after a close battle with the No. 61 ABSSA McLaren in inspired fashion, and the Am Cup winner was the debuting No. 5 Phantom Pro Mercedes. The No. 82 Studie BMW won the GT4 class with only Sunako Jukuchou at the wheel.
The No. 910 JRM Porsche held the No. 666 VSR Lamborghini in the lead battle at the Race 2 start, being followed by the Mercedes from CRAFT Bamboo and Triple Eight, with the top-4 being a Pro-Am Cup pack.
A brief Safety Car period was called to recover the smashed No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes GT4, and when back to action, though the cars just settled to their positions. Of the title contenders, the No. 27 HubAuto Ferrari was the first to jump to the pits while the No. 911 ABsolute Porsche lost some time trying to get the tire change straight. Also, the No. 27 HubAuto Ferrari stopped on pits to go nowhere after that.
After the pit window the No. 912 Absolute Porsche took the top spot from the No. 910 JRM Porsche, and despite the chasing pack being around, it wasn’t in position to attack the No. 912, so the leaders just dashed to the checkered flag. The No. 97 Indigo Mercedes finished in fifth overall, and with the problems for the contenders, it became the series champion.
The No. 88 J-Fly CRAFT Mercedes won the Pro-Am Cup by resisting the pressure from the No. 918 Panther AAS Porsche, finishing second overall. The No. 5 Phantom Pro Mercedes won and the No. 82 Studie BMW completed their class sweeps in GT3 Am Cup and GT4.
Choi also won the Silver Cup title, while the Pro-Am champion was Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak from Absolute Racing, and AMAC Racing’s Andrew MacPherson and Ben Porter got the GT3 Am title.
The GT4 title went for Sunako Jukuchou as he and Takayuki Kinoshita were designated to each of the Team Studie BMWs to boost their title chances.
Between the teams, Absolute Racing and iRace.Win were the GT3 and GT4 champions.
The 2020 season will start only on March 28th and 29th at Sepang, with the debut of the SIC888 endurance race at Shanghai, set for the end of the season.
PHOTOS - SRO
Comments
Post a Comment
Do you have an opinion? Feel free to comment.