After a brilliant opening race at Okayama, the GT Asia Series field regrouped for a second round at the former Formula One venue on Sunday, and the legions of fans who attended the circuit and watched the event unfold live online, were not disappointed..!

Ultimately victory went to Phoenix Racing Asia’s Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong, but not before one of the greatest races in recent GT Asia Series history, which included some of the best overtaking moves we’ve seen.

In a weekend of surprises, it was perhaps no surprise that the teams that have proven strongest over the opening rounds of the season were the ones standing on the podium – points leaders Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo joined by Absolute Team Bentley’s winners from 24-hours prior, Adderly Fong and Andrew Kim.

Sadly for pole-sitter Keita Sawa and Jonathan Venter, the South Korean back-to-back winners suffered an horrendous weekend. Turned around in the first corner of the opening race, they suffered a rare mechanical failure in race two – perhaps as a result of the opening race contact – initiating a Safety Car intervention in the process, and that paved the way for a dramatic final 15 minutes..

In the Pro-Am battle the top points again went to Shaun Thong, who managed to close the gap slightly to Anthony Liu, whilst Andrew Kim’s third place saw the South Korean as the biggest mover in the category, closing in on the two leaders to put himself right into contention for the title.

Race #2 (Round#6)
Fortunately the start of race two saw none of the dramas that befell Bentley’s Jonathan Venter in the opening race, but across the line the field fanned out immediately to almost seven cars wide, fast starting round five winner Andrew Kim coming off worst, forced onto the grass on the run to turn one, fortunately without losing ground.

Pole-sitter Keita Sawa led the field through the opening turn, with Marchy Lee in close pursuit, whilst behind them, everyone else got through cleanly, with Anthony Liu holding the pack at bay as the two leaders set about opening a gap.

The pace at the front was hot, with Sawa and Lee breaking free from the pack to open out a strong early gap, but try as he might the 2015 winner was unable to shake Lee who broke through for the lead at turn five on lap four.

Behind them Liu held off New Zealand sensation Jono Lester in the GruppeM Porsche, but not for long, low tyre pressures forcing the Buriram winner to conserve early, whilst behind them Andrea Amici in the FFF Racing Lamborghini battled with Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak and Australian GT front runner Nathan Morcom who was showing much better pace in the Miedecke Motorsport Aston Martin.

Further back Mok Weng Sun was starting to get back into the rhythm that saw him claim three GT Asia Series titles, the Clearwater Racing star admitting that his Le Mans experience with the GTE class Ferrari saw him change his driving style to suit the lack of ABS and traction control, and he was taking his time to get back the feel of his GT3 mount. 

Despite that he was right in the mix of battle with Piti Bhirombhakdi, Alex Au and Frank Yu, although just as he did in race one, he was about to fall foul again of some close attention, with Yu’s Porsche tapping the Ferrari in turn nine ahead of the compulsory stop, dropping Mok down the order as a result which forced an epic comeback drive from team-mate Gianmaria Bruni.

Whilst Lee continued to punch out the fastest laps of the race and extend his lead (he actually broke Bruni’s lap record set on Saturday to a 1:30.526 on lap nine), behind him Liu’s tyres were finally up to pressure and he began the march forward, although Andrea Amici was not planning on making his life easy, the young Italian making the Huracan incredibly wide..

With many of the amateur drivers behind the wheel for the start of the second race, there was no real surprise that a flurry of activity began in pit lane as soon as the compulsory pit stop [CPS] window opened. One of the first in was Singha Motorsport’s Piti Bhirombhakdi, whilst one of the last to pit was race leader Marchy Lee, who was out by more than 12-seconds by the time he hit pit lane.

That left Jono Lester to inherit the lead after the Porsche driver had effected an impressive pass on Sawa ahead of the Bentley’s stop, taking him with the cross-over at turn nine then running side by side through the next half a lap to get the position away from the Japanese driver.

With their rivals enduring a range of additional compensation penalties during the compulsory stop – Lee and Thong included by virtue of being two silver ranked drivers (they served an additional 16 seconds on top of the compulsory 75 served by as a minimum by every car in the field), Thong still emerged from pit lane in the lead, with a storming Gianmaria Bruni soon forging his way past to put the Clearwater team back on the lead lap.

By that stage second was held by Davide Rizzo, with Tim Sugden rejoining third just ahead of round five winner Adderly Fong. With his team-mate leading, Alex Yoong decided he would get in on the action, punching out a succession of quick laps to close in on the battle for third, but before he had too much chance to attack, the Safety Car was brought out onto the track to recover the #8 Bentley of Jonathan Venter.

It took three laps to recover the two-time 2016 winning Bentley which had suffered a rare mechanical failure, with some question about whether the impact with Lyons in race one had dislodged something that became an issue as the race wore on.

Regardless of how the Safety Car was introduced, what it did do was pave the way for a stunning final stanza, especially as now Bruni – who had just reset the lap record by a stunning eight tenths of a second (1:29.666 on lap 22) – was back on the lead lap and biting at the heels of the leaders.

There was just over 18 minutes remaining when the Safety Car pulled off and Bruni didn’t disappoint, immediately leap frogging the two Craft-Bamboo Porsches and into combat with compatriot Edoardo Liberati in the Lamborghini.

Up front Thong endured a couple of anxious laps waiting for tyre temperature to return, whilst Liu and Fong faced a similar situation, the latter quickly past Sugden for third.

Behind them Alex Yoong was really starting to find some pace, the former F1 star quickly closing in on Carlo Van Dam. It was clear the Audi had the pace over the Singha Ferrari – perhaps too much pace, the Malaysian driver finding the rear of the Ferrari at turn four as Van Dam moved across to the apex, unaware that Yoong was making a move. The result sadly ending with Van Dam’s retirement, although post race the move was ruled a racing incident.

At the front though there was no denying the race winners, Phoenix Racing Asia’s Shaun Thong and Marchy Lee, whilst points leaders Anthon Liu and Davide Rizzo did their title aspirations no harm with their fourth podium of the season, and round five winners Adderly Fong and Andrew Kim likewise added valuable championship points.

Yoong held on for fourth, but only just, the two time Audi Cup winner forced once again to contend with fellow former Minardi F1 pilot Gianmaria Bruni over the closing laps, and this time the local star held out the Italian driver.

Sixth was a tired but overjoyed Tim Sugden who was able to weather a late challenge from Christer Jöns and Liberati, whilst reigning champion Darryl O’Young got the best of an inter-team battle with Richard Lyons for ninth.

Rounding out the field was the Miedecke Stone Motorsport Aston Martin, the Australian team having gained plenty of experience on their GT Asia Series debuts, however they admitted that an ongoing car issue had soured what they felt could have been a successful debut.

For the teams there is little time to rest, with the second Japanese event less than two weeks away (15-17 July). All the action from the Okayama round will be aired on networks around the world (check; www.gtasiaseries.com for details).
What the drivers had to say;

1. Marchy Lee (#5 Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3)
“The race start was good but I had to work hard to get temperature into the front tyres, but by laps three I saw Sawa was struggling on some corners so I knew how to pass him and I did it, then my life was much easier. The team made a great stop and I handed the car to Shaun and then had to endure some scary moments with the Safety Car. I think Shaun did a great job, and as team principal I think for our first year, the team is doing great work – we’re learning, but we’re learning in a good way.

“I think we have a very big challenge coming up in Fuji.. I don’t think we can think about the championship yet, even though we might be in a good position, we just take each race as it comes, and championship points will come if you do a good job..”

1. Shaun Thong (#5 Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3)
“When I got in the car I was really single minded, I knew I had to put in a good stint, but I struggled at the start because I couldn’t get enough heat into the front tyres, but after three laps I got the car working and then the Safety Car came out. That was a really big moment for me because we lost a lot of pressure in the front tyres, but I managed to maintain a gap on the restart and hang on until the chequered flag.

2. Anthony Liu (#37 BBT Ferrari 488 GT3)
“We had a major issue with tyre pressures yesterday, basically they were just too high and we were struggling for pace, so it was all about damage limitation and getting through to today. We changed our pressure strategies and it seemed to work for the stint, but didn’t work so well off the start. The battle with the Lamborghini went on for too long, but he was defending everywhere and leaving me no room and pushed me towards the wall twice.. you have to leave room, you can’t just push me into the wall. In the end I had to pull a brave move in turn one and I got him, but from there on, our target switched from P1 to P2.”

2. Davide Rizzo (#37 BBT Ferrari 488 GT3)
 “The Safety Car broke our tyre pressure strategy because we were running quite low, so we had to effectively start again, but the Audi was very fast, so I just focused on opening up the gap again to the car behind. Yesterday wasn’t so good for us, but this year with all the pit stop penalty times, you lose one, you win one and we’ll try to win again next time.”

3. Andrew Kim (#7 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
“Off the start I just focused on trying to overtake some cars and ensure I didn’t make any mistakes so that I could hand the car to Adderly in a position to challenge the leaders.”

3. Adderly Fong (#7 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
“This was a good comeback weekend after Thailand, which didn’t deliver what we were hoping for because we made a few mistakes there, but we learn from our experiences and coming to this weekend we knew the Bentley would be strong judging from last year. Today wasn’t going to be easy because we were carrying the compensation time from yesterday’s win, but we just had to do the best we could. Andrew did a very good stint, he made a very good start, kept it on the black stuff and made no mistakes, and that’s what it’s about really. The Safety Car helped to bunch up the pack and secure us a chance to go after the podium, but I’d actually anticipated a longer Safety Car intervention, so I hadn’t actually warmed up the tyres for the restart, and for the first three laps it was a bit of a struggle but as the pressures came up and the temperature came back I was able to put in consistent laps. With the rain this morning the car balance was a bit off and ultimately the pace wasn’t there to go after the leaders.”


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GT Asia Series – Okayama International Circuit, Japan (3 July)
Race#1 (60-minutes)
1. 5. Lee/Thong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 37-laps
2. 37. Liu/Rizzo (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) +2.902
3. 7. Kim/Fong (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) +6.841
4. 6. Au/Yoong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +7.670
5. 3. Mok/Bruni (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GT3) +7.968
6. 98. Lester/Sugden (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) +13.621
7. 9. Inthraphuvasak/Jöns/ (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) +18.635
8. 55. Amici/Liberati (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) +19.368
9. 91. Bhirombakdi/O’Young (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) +23.590
10. 88. Yu/Lyons (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) +24.329
11. 95. Morcom/Miedecke (Miedecke Stone Aston Martin Vantage) +26.117
DNF. 12. Bhirombhakdi/Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3) – 28-laps
DNF. 8. Sawa/Venter (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 20-laps

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GT3 Championship points (after six rounds of 12)
1. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (79-points), 3. Marchy Lee/Shaun Thong, Adderly Fong/Andrew Kim (68), 7. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (60), 9. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (47), 10. Piti Bhirombhakdi/Carlo Van Dam (46), 12. Jonathan Venter (44), 13. Alex Yoong/Alex Au (43), 15. Tim Sugden (42), 16. Keita Sawa (37), 17. Duncan Tappy (32), 18. Darryl O’Young/Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (26), 20. Mok Weng Sun (25), 21. Jono Lester, Frank Yu/Richard Lyons (22), 24. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 25. George Richardson (14), 26. Franky Cheng/JingZu Sun (13), 28. Richard Wee (10), 29. Andrew Palmer (8), 30. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 32. Philip Ma (6), 33. George Miedecke/Nathan Morcom (5)

Pro-Am Cup points (after six rounds of 12)
1. Anthony Liu (87-points), 2. Shaun Thong (82), 3. Andrew Kim (72), 4 Piti Bhirombhakdi (61), 5. Alex Au (53), 6. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (50), 7. Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (36), 8. Frank Yu (29), 9. Mok Weng Sun (17), 10. JingZu Sun (16), 11. Philip Ma (12)

Pro Cup points (after six rounds of 12)
1. Davide Rizzo (79-points), 2. Marchy Lee, Adderly Fong (68), 4. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (60), 6. Carlo Van Dam (46), 7. Tim Sugden (45), 8. Jonathan Venter (44), 9. Alex Yoong (33), 10. Keita Sawa (37), 11. Duncan Tappy (32), 12. Darryl O’Young (27), 13. Jono Lester, Richard Lyons (22), 15. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 16. George Richardson (14), 17. Franky Cheng (13), 18. Andrew Palmer (8), 19. Christer Jöns (7), 19. Fabian Hamprecht (7), 21. George Miedecke/Nathan Morcom (4)