Absolute and R&B win GTWC Asia races at Motegi

The Motegi weekend of the FANATEC GT World Challenge Asia saw different makes doing dominant runs to the win, with the No. 11 Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II leading a good Saturday for the Ingolstadt make, while the Porsches were strong on the Sunday with the No. 4 R&B Porsche 992 GT3R topping them all in Race 2.
 
The No. 29 Phantom Pro Audi denied the dominance from the No. 992 Absolute Porsche in previous sessions, and things got even worse for Jinlong Bao in Race 1, as he saw the No. 29 go away with the lead and the No. 11 Absolute Audi take second place, with the Absolute Racing-run No. 911 AAS Porsche coming from the fourth row to the fourth place in the first lap.
 
With Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak on the pressure, the No. 911 got too close for comfort and took the No. 992 out, and a bit ahead, the No. 333 Phantom Pro Audi got overly ambitious, bumped hard the pair of R&B Porsches, with the No. 4 car of Lu Wei staying momentarily beached in the gravel.
 
Kang Ling did everything right to keep the No. 29 on top, but once the pit window and driver changes came, the table was flipped as James Yu put the No. 11 ahead of Cao Qi, and with Cao being really down on pace, the No. 18 PCO Porsche and the No. 37 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes made effortless overtakes for second and third.
 
With Yu having more than 20 seconds to Yuta Kamimura, the No. 11 Absolute Audi was brought with care to the finish line as no progress was made by the challengers during the final stint.
 
GTWC Asia Motegi - Race 1 results
 
The No. 29 Phantom Pro Audi fell down the order so much that narrowly missed the GT3 Silver Cup win to the battered No. 87 R&B Porsche, while the No. 19 Spirit of FFF Lamborghini came back to action to win the GT3 Am Cup, and the No. 50 YZ Studie BMW was the best GT4 entry.
 

With the pros doing the Qualifying for Race 2. the No. 992 Absolute Porsche got the top sport as Matteo Cairoli was flying at Motegi, and the Italian had to act quickly to block Dennis Olsen in the No. 4 R&B Porsche, and Cairoli had the fastest lap from the go to build a gap between them.
 
The race hit a status quo until the top teams decided to pit, quite late in the window, but with time enough for the amateur drivers to be decisive in the rest of the race, and Jinlong Bao kept the No. 992 ahead while Wei Lu would have to play catch up in the No. 4 like Dennis Olsen did, reducing the gap steadily until it got stuck behind without room to overtake, not only attracting the No. 88 Triple Eight Mercedes but also giving margin to the No. 18 PCO Porsche to close down, with the decisive move coming with 15 minutes to go.
 
The No. 992 holding the No. 88 for second place was the favor that Lu needed to guide the No. 4 R&B Porsche to the win, staying without opposition until the checkered flag.
 
GTWC Asia Motegi - Race 2 results
 
R&B Racing also celebrated the GT3 Silver Cup win with the No. 87 Porsche being way ahead of the battered No. 29 Phantom Pro Audi, while the No. 19 Spirit of FFF Lamborghini completed the GT3 Am Cup sweep, with the same going for the No. 50 YZ Studie BMW in the GT4 Cup.
 
Abu Ibrahim and Luca Stolz (No. 88 Triple Eight) lead the standings with 95 points while Inthraphuvasak (No. 911 AAS) has 86 points with Anthony Liu (No. 37 CRAFT Bamboo) and Wei Lu (No. 4 R&B) sits right behind them with 80 points.
 
Ahead of the Japan Cup finale, set for Okayama on 19-20  August, the Nagai/Kamimura duo (No. 18 Porsche Center Okazaki) tops the table with 103 points, but the Hoshino/Fujii pair (No. 47 D’Station) still has a slight chance to spoil their title winning party with their 86 points.
 
PHOTOS: SRO