Craft-Bamboo Racing showed continued development of their two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs during rounds three and four of the GT Asia Series in Thailand. However, they are still struggling to find the speed that is needed to challenge for the top step of the podium as the Porsche is not where it needs to be in terms of pace and Balance of Performance. Given their current circumstances, the GT Asia champions are finding it hard to mount a successful championship campaign but are doing everything possible to rectify the situation.
The #88 Interush Porsche showed improvements from Korea, which allowed both drivers to extract enough performance to finish the race in P7 and kick start their championship campaign with some points. They followed this up in race two with another P7 finish, ensuring they left Thailand with some positive development time behind the wheel.
The #91 VLT entry fought some excellent battles in race one but was struck down with two separate tyre punctures in race one. This forced them to retire and miss out on the points finish that they had fought so hard for. They bounced back for race two though, overcoming an early spin to fight their way back up the field as best as possible to take P9.
Qualifying
#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R
Richard Lyons hit the Thai circuit for the first qualifying session and managed to set a 1:34.219 in the blistering heat to see the #88 Interush Porsche start in P7 for race one. Frank Yu was in charge of Q2 and by the end of the session had clocked a 1:36.883, which secured him a P11 start for Sunday’s race.
#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R
Darryl O’Young made a strong push in the first session and was awarded P10 for his efforts after setting a 1:34.944. Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi took the #91 VLT Porsche out on track for only his second GT Asia Series qualifying session and was able to record a 1:36.153, good enough to see the Thai driver start his home race in P9.
Race One
#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R
Richard Lyons made a strong start in the #88 Interush Porsche, maintaining his position for the first half of the lap with some good defensive driving before making a bold move up the inside of the Lamborghini to take P6. Lyons continued on his pursuit for more places and was able to move up another spot to P5 by the fourth lap with some faultless driving. The Irish GT driver continued with his march up the field, making it up into P4 before coming under attack from Shaun Thong and having to switch to a defensive driving style. After Lyons ran slightly wide at one corner, Thong was able to squeeze through but not after one final show of defence from Lyons. After a strong stint, Lyons headed into the pits and handed the #88 Porsche over to Frank in P5, where they completed a clean stop and got back out on track to continue their challenge. Frank was proving that he was becoming more accustomed to the Porsche 911 GT3 R, setting some good lap times and challenging the other cars. After a good battle with Anthony Liu, Frank lacked the overall pace to continue to defend his position and moved into P6. From here, Frank drove a consistent final stint to bring the #88 Interush Porsche home in P7 for their first points haul of the season.
#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R
O’Young was able to retain his starting positon after race one got underway at Buriram and it didn’t take long before he had closed in and taken P9. The Hong Kong driver continued to run most of his stint in P9 with the #91 Porsche lacking the overall speed to break through the midfield. Once the pit window opened, O’Young headed into the pits to switch over to his teammate. Bhirombhakdi took to his home circuit and was able to make it up to a high of P7 with his knowledge and growing experience in the #91 Porsche. Unfortunately, in the last ten minutes of the race, a tyre puncture to the front left forced Bhirombhakdi into the pits. The crew did a great job to get the car sorted and back out on track as quickly as possible, helping to keep the #91 VLT in the fight. Unfortunately, when the Thai driver was on his out lap, he suffered another puncture, this time to the front right, which caused him to spin and narrowly miss the tyre stacks. After returning to the pits, the team decided to retire the car and prepare for tomorrow’s race.
Quotes
#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R
Richard Lyons, Driver #88
“Starting race one of the weekend, we had reasonable performance and it looked like something good could come of it but unfortunately we just settled into our position and that’s where I handed over to Frank. He then did a god job to bring it to the end.”
Frank Yu, Driver #88
“The team has done a great job and has made lots of improvements from Korea but I am still learning the car. Richard had a good start and got a couple of positions and then he turned it over to me and I brought it back in P7. I couldn’t chase the cars in front of me and the car behind me couldn’t get me. ”
#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R
Darryl O’Young, Driver #91
“Race one was ultimately disappointing, in the opening stint we had decent pace but a little inconsistent. When Toy took over the car we ended getting two punctures, with the second one sending him off the track. So it was better to just not continue, which was difficult for points but we will just have to learn from it and try and find out what went wrong.”
Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi, Driver #91
“Race one didn’t go as well as we hoped. Once I got into my stint, we suffered a left front tyre puncture so I came into the pit. Then on my out lap, we had a second puncture in the right front so we had a DNF, which wasn’t the result we wanted.”
Race Two
#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R
Frank Yu would be the starting driver for race two and delivered another solid drive for the second time that weekend. Starting from P11, Frank was able to take two positions and move into P8 in the first few laps. Half way through his stint, Frank was still holding strong in P8 but began to come under attack from Alex Au. Frank was undeterred and held him off with expert technique, keeping his position for the rest of his stint. Once the pit window was open, Frank was able to hand over to his teammate in P6, giving the pair hope for a good result by race’s end. Lyons headed out after a clean stop but barely had any time to get up to speed before a safety car was called out. The field bunched up and the safety car remained on track for an extended period of time, returning to the pits with only 14 minutes left. Lyons restarted the race in P7 and fought hard in the hopes of gaining some positions. He did his all but was unable to catch P6 with the pace of his #88 Porsche, although he was able to build up a gap between himself and P8. As the hour long race drew to a close, Lyons crossed the line in P7 to ensure that the #88 pair scored some more points for their championship campaign.
#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R
It was home hero Bhirombhakdi who would be starting race two for the #91 pair and he was off to a good start, taking two positions by the end of the first lap. Unfortunately, Bhirombhakdi spun during a heated battle with Todd Piti, moving the #91 VLT Porsche down to last place. Bhirombhakdi recovered quickly and by the time he pitted to change to O’Young, he had made it back up to P11, showing a great deal of improvement from his first GT3 experience in Korea. Not soon after, the safety car was deployed and bunched up the field until the last 15 minutes of the race. Unfortunately, this didn’t leave O’Young enough time to take many positions but he still pushed forward and put in an admirable performance. With a never give up attitude, O’Young was able to close in on the Audi of Shaun Thong on the final corner and edge the nose of his #91 VLT Porsche over the line to snatch P9 in an epic photo finish.
Quotes
#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R
Frank Yu, Driver #88
“Started from P11 but handed over to Richard in P6. I had a really good fight with the Audi, Bentley and Ferrari. The car was performing well and Richard finished the race in the same position in P7. I think with the current BOP this is probably where we are at now and I am quite happy to finish in P7 for race two.”
Richard Lyons, Driver #88
“Frank started off the race really well and started to get comfortable with the Porsche and there was some good feedback from him, which we saw from his lap times. He was close to the guys at the front and could catch and pass people. After I jumped in we had a safety car, which closed the field up and I thought we may have been able to do something special. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a fight and that’s where we ended up at the finish. Looking forward to Okayama and we will progress from there.”
#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R
Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi, Driver #91
“Got off to a good start, managed to get up to P7 or P6 and I was fighting with Todd Piti and I made a bit of mistake, pushing the car too hard and causing a spin. This dropped us to last but we managed to gain back our ground. Darryl did a great job to secure P9 and some points. Looking forward to the next round and improving on the pace of the car.”
Darryl O’Young, Driver #91
“Race two I was quite fortunate when the safety car came out as Toy had a spin earlier. I was able to close the gap and get close to the pack again. With 15 minutes to go we were able to have some good battles. I had a good fight with the #5 car and we just got him on the line. We still need to work harder to improve our pace so we can fight at the front because right now we are in the P7 to P10 range and this isn’t where we want to be.”
Richard Coleman, CEO of Craft-Bamboo Racing
“We have made improvements since Korea but we do not have the pace to fight at the moment and the car is currently not where it needs to be to make a proper challenge. We also had bad luck again this weekend but this time for the #91 car. #88 showed some fight and was able to take some points but we still need to continue working hard to improve our standings. The car has had a challenging BoP, but in all fairness to the championship this is a new car and we have only had two races. However, it’s vital that this is correct for the next race. We are doing what we can to help ourselves but at the moment we are too far out of the window in terms of performance regulations. ”
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