FAW and JMR win GTWC Asia races at Buriram

One week after the Thailand Super Series started a new era under SRO’s wing, Buriram hosted the Thai round of the GT World Challenge Asia, with a thrilling Saturday race that gave the win in the final minutes to the No. 45 FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Congfu Cheng and Yu Kuai, while the Sunday was in control of the No. 99 Johor Motorsport Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Jeffri Ibrahim and Ben Green, who eventually took the lead of the standings.
 
The rush to solve things in Race 1 almost pit maneuvered the No. 96 Harmony Ferrari, but the No. 37 Phantom Global Porsche didn’t have the same luck and was spun by the No. 16 Uno Audi at the first corner. With Shigekazu Wakisaka holding most of the field in the No. 60 LM Corsa Ferrari, Luo Kailuo disappeared with the lead and brought Congfu Cheng in the No. 45 FAW Audi with him, but Cheng had a five second penalty on his back for jumping the start.
 
After the pits, an offroad excursion threw grass in the front of the No. 87 Origine Porsche, and with no possibility to throw air inside the car, it was better to stop it than to damage due to overheat, which brought the Safety Car again to the track. While the Silver Cup entries kept the top spots, but in the Pro-Am Cup, the No. 4 Origine Posche took the lead once some confusion with a drive through penalty threw the No. 60 out of its consistency.
 
After playing with the possibilities since the minute 54, the No. 45 FAW Audi finally concluded the move on the No. 96 Harmony Ferrari in the final lap, not only securing the overall win forYu Kuai and Congfu Cheng, but also conquering the Silver Cup win.
 
GTWC Asia - Buriram Race 1 results
 
The No. 4 Origine Porsche took Pro-Am Cup honors from third overall, despite the penalty festival behind it, and the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan took control of the Silver-Am Cup, finishing just shy of the overall top five. The No. 8 EBM Mercedes completed the list of class winners, barely outpacing the No. 75 Garage 75 Ferrari for the Am Cup victory.
 

The second race had contact before the first corner, with the No. 96 Harmony Ferrari and the No. 911 Absolute Porsche got ping-ponged in the middle of the field between the main straight and the first corner, with the No. 8 EBM Mercedes being damaged.
 
A bit more than 10 minutes was needed to clear the mess, but when the green flag was waved, the No. 99 JMR Corvette kept the Pro-Am Cup lead while the No. 89 KRC BMW was keeping the Silver-Am Cup lead, especially because the the cars in the second place of both classes were right behind them.
 
All the frontrunners were expected to maximise their track time to make use of the pro drivers in charge, but actually the pit window did almost nothing to change the order, except for the No. 2 Climax Mercedes getting second place in the Pro-Am Cup and third overall.
 
With the No. 89 being isolated in between a bunch of Pro-Am Cup cars, it would compensate for the No. 2 to mount an attack and get a shot at the overall win, but the pace was so similar between the top 3 that Zhou Bihuang wasn’t able to challenge the Silver-Am Cup winning No. 89 KRC BMW or the Pro-Am Cup and overall winner, the No. 99 JMR Corvette.
 
With a mix of penalties and the extra time in the pits for the opposition, the No. 16 Uno Audi did a complete 180 compared to Saturday and won the Silver Cup, while the No. 75 Garage 75 Ferrari barely outpaced the No. 51 AMAC Porsche for the Am Cup win.
 
GTWC Asia - Buriram Race 2 results
 
Jeffri Ibrahim (No. 99) now holds the lead with 75 points against the 69 from Liu and Boccolacci (No. 37) and Ruan and Oosten (No. 89), while Yuan Bo and Ye Hongli (No. 87) appear in fourth with 68 points.
 
The series will head to Japan for two weekends of the SRO GT Powertour, starting with Fuji Speedway on 12 and 13 July.
 
PHOTOS: SRO