With more than 20 years of managing successful motorsport championships in the region, David Sonenscher carries a wealth of knowledge and experience in Asia, something from which the successful foundations of major Asian championships such as the GT Asia Series, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and TCR Asia Series amongst others were built, whilst Jim Ye and his team have taken the GT concept in China and created one of the fastest growing and increasingly relevant championships in the region.

This collaboration is based on a relationship between Sonenscher and Ye which stretches back over 12 years and the strong friendship that exists between the two.

“I’m proud to say, that the GT Asia Series and China GT will be very closely aligned for the future to build on the foundations both of us have established over many years. It is becoming increasingly important to have a strong presence in the most important automotive territory in the world and I am delighted that we will be able to work together closely to create a fully integrated strategy to maximise this opportunity.” Sonenscher explained.

For Jim Ye, his views echo those of Sonenscher, as he looks to cement his growth in China and build the profile of his championship in the region.

“China is the emerging market in world motorsport, but whilst the automotive industry is moving along at an incredible pace, motorsport is still only in it’s formative years,” Ye confirmed. “To that end, we need to be very careful about helping the industry to grow in a way that will help build a future, so we need to ensure that we work together as a group and protect that growth for the long-term.”

For season 2017, the GT Asia Series will continue within China GT, with the GT3 category champions also crowned the 2017 GT Asia Series champions, whilst beyond 2017 a blueprint for the growth of both championships is currently being finalized.

The opening round of the 2017 GT Asia Series will therefore get underway at Goldenport Motor Park in Beijing on 12-13 May, followed by events at Ordos, Zhuhai, Shanghai, Chengdu and Zhejiang.

About China GT Championship:
China GT was launched in 2016 and is promoted by China GT Management Co. Ltd. Sanctioned by the Federation of Automobile and Motorcycle Sports of China (CAMF), the championship features the world’s best automotive brands competing in GT3, GTC and GT4 classes. China GT is based on the principles of being ‘Just, Fair and Open’ so to attract both Chinese and international drivers and teams.

2017 China GT/GT Asia Series – calendar
TEST DAYS, 15-16 April – Beijing Audi Goldenport Motor Park (China)
Rnd#1/#2, 12-13 May – Beijing Audi Goldenport Motor Park (China)
Rnd#3/#4, 7-8 July – Ordos International Circuit (China)
Rnd#5/#6, 29-30 July – Zhuhai International Circuit (China)
Rnd#7/#8, 9-10 September – Shanghai International Circuit (China)
Rnd#9/#10, 4-5 October – Chengdu International Circuit (China)
Rnd#11/#12, 19-22 October – Zhejiang International Circuit (China)

An announcement concerning the revised calendar for the 2017 GT Asia Series season will be released in the coming days, once teams, stakeholders and partners have been consulted, however the Series will continue into a seventh season.

Despite the fact that GT Asia will not be on the programme for Sepang, the opening round of the 2017 TCR Asia Series will continue at the venue as scheduled.

“We’re proud to reveal that aai motorsports have entered four cars for the full 2017 GT Asia Series,” David Sonenscher, the CEO of Motorsport Asia Limited confirmed. “They’re such a high profile team in Asia, and always provide a competitive challenge to the established teams in whatever championship they contest, and are sure to be amongst the front-runners in GT Asia this year.”

Over recent seasons aai have made cameo appearances in the GT Asia Series, most famously last season with AMG Customer Racing with a two car Mercedes-AMG GT entry for the August Shanghai event, the debut in the region for the new Mercedes GT3 weapon, but aai have been more strongly associated with another leading German manufacturer, BMW.

“We’re proud to be returning to the GT Asia Series – a championship with it’s foundations firmly established in Asia – and bring a full compliment of drivers to go after the 2017 Team’s and Driver’s titles as we did with Motorsport Asia’s Asian Touring Car Series back in 2011,” aai Team Manager Mitoshi Kakimoto confirmed.

“Our plan will be to compete with three GT3 cars – two BMW M6 GT3s, and a single BMW Z4 GT3 – and one GT4 car, details of which we’ll reveal shortly. We have a strong driver lineup planned – that will also be revealed soon – with our sole focus being to claim the championship titles and show once more just how competitive our team is on the world stage.”

BMW have had a global resurgence in GT3 competition over the last 12-months, claiming victory in the grueling Spa 24-Hour race last year and they were recently amongst the pace-setters at the demanding Bathurst 12-Hour, so they can be expected to challenge the established stars of GT Asia with their mighty twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8 powered machines.

For aai Team Principal Jun San Chen, he admitted the team were relishing the chance to return to competitive sprint racing. “Coming from an endurance race oriented Asian Le Mans Series in the past years, it is of a pleasure to return back to sprint racing in GT Asia Series where every fraction of a second counts in determining who takes home the win. With this stated we would use our experiences in endurance racing and adjust our technique to achieve the most successful outcome for the team.”

The 2017 season gets underway in early March, with a two-day official test at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on 7-8 March, followed by the first two rounds of the season at the same venue on 10-12 March.

The GT Asia Series is sanctioned by the FIA as an International Series and is clearly recognised as the Region’s leading GT Championship. It is solely managed and promoted by Motorsport Asia Ltd and is backed by Michelin, KW Automotive, Motul and Race Room.

“During the 2016 end of season presentation I told our rivals that we were going to come back in 2017 and claim not just the Team’s title, but this year we want the Driver’s title as well,” Absolute Team Bentley’s Ingo Matter said.

“We’ve had a fantastic relationship with the GT Asia Series and been the most successful manufacturer in the Series across the last two seasons with any one of our teams in the battle for the podium across each of the circuits we’ve travelled to, so we’re going into 2017 full of confidence.”

Since they made their debut in the GT Asia Series during the penultimate round of the 2014 season with the mighty twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 Continental GT3, Absolute’s drivers have been right in the title battle, winning an impressive seven events across the ensuing two seasons, claiming 22 podiums in the process.

Last season Japan’s Keita Sawa and Australia’s Jonathon Venter won a season-high three rounds, whilst Hong Kong’s Adderly Fong added a third win to the two he enjoyed in 2015 alongside Sawa on their way to second in the Driver’s championship.

Across the ensuing two plus years, Bentley Team Absolute have enjoyed the presence of some serious contenders behind the wheel, with England’s Duncan Tappy, Spain’s Andy Soucek, Briton Andy Meyrick, Germany’s Christer Jöns, Dane Benny Simonsen and France’s Jean-Karl Vernay amongst those on the rotating driver’s roster, but none have enjoyed more success than Sawa, Venter and Fong.

The final driver lineup for 2017 is still very much a team secret, but based on past seasons, it is likely to include a selection of drivers more than capable of taking the fight to their rivals.

“As we have in past seasons, we’ll reveal the lineup on the eve of the opening round, but let’s just say, there’s a few names there to instil fear into the hearts of anyone thinking they’re going to have an easy time of it this season,” Matter explained in his typical laconic style.

“Absolute Racing are a powerhouse in Asian motorsport, and have been a regular podium finisher and outright title contender every time they’ve entered GT Asia,” Motorsport Asia Limited CEO David Sonenscher said. “They’ll be right at the top of their game this year, and if past season’s are anything to go by, they will be hard to beat, but I’m sure there will be no shortage of teams looking to push them all the way to the final round.”

The 2017 season gets underway in early March, with a two-day official test at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on 7-8 March, followed by the first two rounds of the season at the same venue on 10-12 March.

Reigning Team’s champions Absolute Racing were the first to announce that they would be returning, looking to add the driver’s title to their consecutive victories in the team’s race, but they will have some stiff competition coming from a team with significant past experience in GT Asia (2010 team’s champion), with a marque that has established itself as a powerful force in past seasons – Aston Martin.

CMRT Eurasia already have one confirmed entry in GT Asia for James Cai and Kenneth Lim and they have confirmed that they are looking to secure a second Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for the 2017 Series which kicks off in Malaysia on 10-12 March.

“It’s great to be back in the GT Asia Series with a car in which we had so much success in the past,” Eurasia’s Mark Goddard admitted. “After a three year break, we’re looking forward to getting back into the battles which have been the hallmark of the Series in recent years. GT Asia is a fantastic championship which is very professionally run with a great media package.

“Our relationship with the successful British manufacturer sees us come in to GT Asia as an Aston Martin Partner Team, with the full technical backing of the factory in the UK, so we really have the opportunity to take the fight to the established teams and I believe, be in a position to go after the Team and Driver’s championships.”

“It’s great to have James and Kenneth back with us after the terrific job they did in 2015 in a GTC class Ferrari 458 Challenge,” GT Asia Series CEO David Sonenscher explained. “They were regularly amongst the front-runners in their class and often hassling the rear of the GT3 field, so we expect with the support and experience of Eurasia Motorsport – themselves winners in Asia with Aston Martin – that they will put the mighty Vantage right in amongst the front runners.

“Aston Martin and GT Asia have had a strong relationship in past seasons, having claimed multiple wins and the 2015 GT3 driver’s championship crown for Darryl O’Young. The car is still a proven winner, and will be a strong addition to the 2017 field.”

The 2017 season gets underway in early March, with a two-day official test at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on 7-8 March, followed by the first two rounds of the season at the same venue on 10-12 March.

The GT Asia Series is sanctioned by the FIA as an International Series and is clearly recognised as the Region’s leading GT Championship. It is solely managed and promoted by Motorsport Asia Ltd and is backed by Michelin, KW Automotive, Motul and Race Room.

1. Jonathan Venter/Keita Sawa (#8 Bentley Continental GT3)
3x wins (South Korea x2, Fuji – race two), 4x podiums*

Okay, so they didn’t win the championship – in the end, they didn’t really come close – Jonathan Venter claiming fifth in the points, his high-profile Japanese team-mate Keita Sawa seventh, Venter a full 31 points down on title holders Liberati and Amici despite amassing the greatest number of wins..

Sadly they were plagued by misfortune mid-season which took them from title favourites at the close of the opening round – where they’d impressively recorded back-to-back wins -  to dark horses by they time they arrived in Shanghai for the season finale.. Such had been their tale of frustration.

Thailand saw Germany’s Fabian Hamprecht subbing for the absent Keita Sawa who was in Le Mans preparing for the annual endurance classic, the young Bentley recruit fitting in well to the team and qualifying strongly in the oppressive Buriram heat.

Race one saw the team forced to contend with a seriously long compulsory pit stop [CPS] compensation time, which dropped them well behind the field, but in race two, things were looking good for Hamprect, who was leading up to his CPS. Sadly an odd occurrence on the circuit saw the field brought into line behind the Safety Car as track officials worked to resolve a loose manhole cover on the inside of one of the far corners of the circuit. The timing couldn’t have been worse for those who hadn’t committed their CPS, they were forced to circulate in line before the window was open again once the Safety Car returned to pit lane – ultimately, despite a mammoth effort in a cockpit that was comfortably north of 60 degrees, Venter could do no better than 11th..

Sawa was back at Okayama, a strong hunting ground for the Japanese driver who claimed a win alongside Adderly Fong in season 2015 in the #8 Bentley, yet disappointingly, despite claiming pole position for race two, things started badly for Venter who was turned around by former team-mate Richard Lyons in the opening corner, their recovery leading to a 12th placed finish after Venter was forced to come down pit road to check damage to the car.

Things went from bad to worse in race two, Sawa making a strong start before being sideline with a turbo issue, something the team attributed to the heavy knock in race one, sidelining them just after half race distance.

Wet weather was the feature of the opening race at Fuji, Venter and Sawa gathering a solid haul of points with sixth in the opening race, then second in race two, after a stunning drive by Venter in slippery conditions with an ABS issue which forced the young Australian to adapt his driving style to cope with being unable to brake as heavily.

By Shanghai in August, the duo were looking to work their way forward once again, a solid haul of points would keep them in the hunt heading into the final round, but things didn’t start as they’d hoped, practice and qualifying seeing the #8 Bentley languishing towards the tail of the top ten. Typical of the reigning GT Asia Series team champions though, they wouldn’t be down for long, the Absolute Racing operation slipping into overdrive to gain back the momentum they’d lost in Fuji – the benefit of that experience showed with their third win of the season coming in race two.

The rain returned for the final round of the season with the GT Asia Series Shang Peng Race of Shanghai, where sadly the championship run would come to an end in the opening race after the treacherous conditions and the long pit stop compensation time for their round ten victory held them back to eighth place at the flag, although a recovery to fourth in race two elevated Venter to fifth in the points.

Ultimately though, despite their domination of the opening round as one of few teams in the modern era who had gone back-to-back with a big CPS compensation time and their third victory in Fuji, the unlucky Safety Car intervention in Thailand, and the incident in Okayama kept them from what could have been a final round with more than two outright contenders.. There’s always 2017!

2. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (#37 Ferrari 488 GT3)
2x wins (Thailand – race two, Shanghai#1 – race one), 5x podiums*

Since their debut in South Korea in May 2014, BBT Ferrari team-mates Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo have been right in the title race all the way down to the final round in the last three seasons, and there’s good reason why.

In season 2014, Anthony Liu – who went into the final round in Macau as the sole entry – won four events in his maiden season to finish second just five points in arrears of Mok Weng Sun. The duo then claimed two wins in 2015 (including the Sepang 3-Hour race) to finish third in the championship despite missing an entire round (Fuji)..

Undeniably they started amongst the title favourites in 2016, and immediately proved why, by claiming their sixth consecutive podium finish in South Korea, ahead of their first victory in Thailand, a victory that was celebrated by Liu with much emotion on the roof of their new Ferrari 488.. Another podium in Okayama during the second race of the season saw them comfortably leading the points on the run into Fuji, up by 11 over two-time 2016 winners Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong.

Sadly, despite impressively qualifying on the front row for both races at the iconic Japanese circuit, a rare engine failure – and just their second DNF in three seasons – saw them sidelined in race one, scoring zero points.

A magnanimous gesture by three-time GT Asia Series champion Mok Weng Sun saw the engine donated from the #3 Clearwater Racing Ferrari overnight, allowing the pristine red and yellow BBT car to make its way to the grid for race two, although starting from rear-of-field.

An epic drive by team-owner Liu saw the #37 Ferrari move into the top five ahead of the compulsory pit stop, with Rizzo leaving pit lane towards the rear of the top ten ahead of a charge back through to eighth at the flag, leaving them second in the points heading into the final two races of the season.

Masters of strategy, the AF Corse-supported BBT team recorded arguably their best ever victory in the challenging conditions of round nine in Shanghai, claiming the win by a mere 53 one thousandths of a second after an epic end to the opening one hour race, Liu charging from a distant third to pull alongside race leader Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak across the line to record one of the most incredible wins in GT Asia Series history.

The result saw them draw level on points with Liberati and Amici in the Lamborghini, but carrying the maximum pit stop penalty for victory in race one, saw a lengthy CPS in race two – a race in which their title rivals scored their only victory of the season. Crossing the line just tenth, the BBT team dropped to nine points in arrears ahead of the final event of the year.

Heading back to Shanghai – their home race – the two drivers were full of confidence and ready for everything the Lamborghini team could throw at them, including a second car with two factory superstars behind the wheel..

Thing started perfectly with both Rizzo and Liu claiming front row starts, Rizzo alongside Audi’s Alex Yoong, and Liu alongside title rival Andrea Amici.. It was going to be a fitting end to a tough season.

Tragically, despite the challenging weather and the promise of a title fight to remember, it was all but over on the opening lap, thanks in part to outgoing champion Darryl O’Young who tagged Rizzo into the tight turn one-two complex, spinning the Italian to rear-of-field.

Rizzo then mounted the comeback of the year to close in on the lead pack within a handful of laps, but with limited visibility in the worsening conditions, he tagged the rear of the GruppeM Porsche under brakes at the hairpin on lap four, forcing their instant retirement.

The team worked feverishly, supported by the drivers themselves to repair the car ahead of the second race, but tragically, an almost identical situation presented itself, with Liu spinning on the exit of the turn three left-hander whilst fighting Amici for the lead, fortunately with little contact, but again the team were on the back foot.

They recovered, Rizzo storming through the closing laps to be sixth, but the damage had already been done, the two Ferrari drivers once more forced to endure another team claiming the championship silverware.

Arguably, they have been the fastest combination in GT Asia across the last three seasons, but despite amassing eight race wins – the most of any single team in the sport across that time – they have missed out on title victory. Ultimately the engine failure in Okayama was the decider, had they managed to continue on with the strategy that had seen them leading the points coming into the first Japanese event, it may well have been a very different Italian manufacturer holding the champions trophy in 2016!

3. Marchy Lee/Shaun Thong (#5 Audi R8 LMS GT3)
2x wins (Thailand – race one, Okayama – race two), 4x podiums*

A veteran of the GT Asia Series, having finished fifth alongside Jeffrey Lee in 2012 and seventh in 2013 (each season with a win apiece), Marchy Lee started season 2016 at the helm of an ambitious new project – leading the all-new Phoenix Racing Asia team as not just a driver, but also co-team principal with one of Europe’s most successful team bosses; Ernst Moser.

It was a big project to kick off a new season, behind the wheel of one of two brand-new Audi R8 LMS GT3s, and to add to his level of difficulty, he took on a series rookie as his co-driver – 20-year old Shaun Thong..

In South Korea the Audis proved themselves to be fast, Thong an impressive sixth on debut in the ‘Pro’ drivers leg, whilst Marchy used a little strategy to make himself the ‘B’ driver for the #5 team, topping the timesheets to claim pole for race two (Silver ranked drivers could choose the order in which they started).

Race one looked promising, Thong circulating not far off the lead pack, handing the car to Lee within striking distance of the front runners, but an error leaving pit lane saw the impressive gold Aape by Bathing Ape/Audi Hong Kong R8 exit just a fraction fast, forcing Lee back into the pits with a drive through penalty, yet despite that, they still finished an impressive fifth.

Fifth became fourth in race two, the two Hong Kong-based drivers finishing the opening round equal third on points – but the best was yet to come..

Qualifying in the heat in Thailand saw both drivers record a front row starting position, and despite a drama in the opening laps for Thong with a brake pressure issue which led to on off in the final corner, the team recovered to hand Lee the car in a position to attack, and as his rivals faded in the immense heat, the Audi driver charged, putting in one of the best stints of his career to cross the line for his new team’s first win of the season.

Frustratingly for Thong, a rare technical issue kept the team to limited laps in opening qualifying at Okayama, leaving the 20 year old only 13th on the grid, but a recovery by Marchy Lee in the second session netted the experienced driver another front row start, his third in succession. Race one saw the #5 Audi cross the line fifth, but it was race two which saw the team back on the top step of the podium, with victory number two – moving them to equal second in the championship.

Unfortunately, the following two events stalled their forward progress; Fuji saw the weather impact the results, so too the longest straight in Asian motorsport which had an effect on the outright performance of the naturally aspirated V10 Audi, ninth in race one and eleventh in race two, a result impacted by a spinning Aston Martin in the early laps which forced Lee to take avoiding action which dropped him to rear of field.

Shanghai’s opening event delivered little relief.. Despite setting amongst the fastest times in practice, a rare gearbox failure in qualifying saw Shaun Thong forced to settle for the twelfth fastest time, whilst Lee was unable to record a lap, forcing him to start rear of the 17-car field.

Despite the challenges, the Phoenix Racing Asia team dug deep, claiming a fourth and fifth placed finish to retain fourth in points and be in with a mathematical chance of title victory in the season final.

Again the Audi’s started strongly in the final event, team-mate Alex Yoong claiming his second pole position of the year in race one, with Thong starting from the fourth row, whilst Marchy Lee was again strong, claiming yet another top three start for the final race of the year despite the wet conditions.

A tough start for Thong saw him battling to hold position as around him cars were involved in contact, the series rookie though keeping a cool head to hand Lee the car within grasp of the lead pack, the team leader working his way forward as one of the fastest drivers on the circuit to cross the line in third place, standing on the podium alongside race winners – team-mates Alex Yoong and Alex Au.

A brilliant start by Lee to avoid the melee into turn one for the start of the second race saw him emerge in the top three, the veteran hanging out until the final stages of the compulsory pit stop window to pit from an impressive lead, the experienced Phoenix Racing Asia team turning the car around to have Shaun Thong split the two leading Lamborghinis on the run out of pit lane for second.

From there – despite immense pressure from points leader Liberati, Thong held his ground with a mature and defensive drive to hand the team second place outright and with it, elevate he and Lee to second overall in the championship points, just 19 points back from title victory. In the process Thong earned enough points to claim the Pro-Am title in his debut year, rounding out an impressive first season for Phoenix Racing Asia.

Ultimately, it was consistency that earned them the result – they were the only team in the Series that was classified a finisher in every race – but Fuji and a tough second race in Thailand cost them the title!

4. Edoardo Liberati /Andrea Amici (#55 Lamborghini Huracan GT3)
1x win (Fuji – race two), 7x podiums*

They may have won the championship, but on race wins and podiums, FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini juniors Edoardo Liberati and Andrea Amici only rank fourth..

The two fresh new faces for the Chinese-Italian team arrived in South Korea with little prior knowledge of the Asian scene, although both had campaigned races in Asia previously, Liberati the most experienced with time in the one-make Super Trofeo Asia championship for which he was the 2015 Pro-Am champion.

Very quickly though the two likeable young Italians proved to be fast, although their reputations were a little circumspect after the opening two events of the season, which were plagued by an error under brakes in Korea, and an error off the line in Thailand – both credited to Liberati who was clearly putting himself under immense pressure to perform.

By Okayama though they – and the relatively new FFF team – were starting to gel as a team, and despite not always being the fastest, were rarely outside the top five, their seven podiums from 12 starts a good indication as to why they became champions.

Korea was quickly forgotten by all outside of the Craft Bamboo team (Liberati eliminated race leader Richard Lyons under brakes early during the opening race of the season), and by Fuji the duo made their mark on the championship, racing from pole to victory in the second race, adding to their second placed finish in race one – ultimately they left Japan as the championship points leaders and were never headed from that point on..

Consistency was the key, one win, but seven podiums and eight top five finishes was a difficult record to beat, their worst result outside of failing to finish the opening race – eighth in race two at Okayama, and that still gave them six valuable points..

Undeniably they were the deserving champions, although unlike the Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo combination, it took them two cars to do the job, a second car for the man who developed the Huracan GT3 – Jeroen Mul – and co-drivers Richard Antinucci and Marco Mapelli allowed the team to run ‘interference’ for the #55 car, paving the way to a comfortable win in the final. It was ultimately a moot point as their rivals suffered a less than ideal final round after failing to finish the penultimate race, effectively handing the two Italians victory ahead of the final round..

5. Adderly Fong/Andrew Kim (#7 Bentley Continental GT3)
1x win (Okayama – race one), 5x podiums*

Runner-up in the 2015 championship, many expected Adderly Fong to go one better in 2016, but the ‘dream team’ of Fong and Keita Sawa went separate ways for 2016, Sawa joining Australian Jonathan Venter, and Fong joined by rising South Korean star Andrew Kim.

It was a bet each way by Absolute Racing who paired a fast amateur [Bronze] with Fong, whilst the Venter-Sawa combination was Silver-Silver, a combination which had proven almost unbeatable in season 2015 (Silver-Silver combinations finished 1-2-3).

The #7 Bentley team started strongly, Fong claiming pole first time out in South Korea before the duo claimed second in the opening race, but a rare mechanical issue sidelined them as they prepared to start the car for race two, forcing their instant retirement.

They recovered with another podium in the heat of Thailand, then drove brilliantly in Okayama for a repeat victory for Fong and a maiden victory for Kim to take a share of second in the championship at the mid-point of the season.

Frustratingly the closing half of the season wasn’t so kind – stark contrast to Fong’s USA campaign where he was regularly a podium finisher for the Absolute Bentley team in the PWC.. Fuji provided little joy, with weather plaguing their pace and they were forced to watch their team-mates run at the front end of the field, whilst during the opening race in Shanghai, they just missed the podium in race two, but gained enough points to keep them in with a mathematical chance of title victory.

Rain again fell on the GT Asia Series parade during the final event of the season, but this time the #7 crew were ready, and Andrew Kim’s drive to second in the opening race was fantastic, battling with the Craft-Bamboo Porsche for position in the closing laps, then weathering an assault from Audi’s Marchy Lee as the chequered flag approached – it had been arguably Kim’s best drive of the year.

Ultimately the team rounded out the year with another top ten finish to claim fourth in the championship and take Absolute Racing to their second consecutive Team’s Championship title, in the end falling just four points shy of third and lamenting what might have been if they hadn’t suffered a gearbox issue in the second race in South Korea – a race where their team-mates were able to claim back-to-back wins..

* including race wins

The list of 2016 GT Asia Series winners..
Rnd#1 (South Korea) – Jonathan Venter/Keita Sawa (#8 Bentley)
Rnd#2 (South Korea) – Keita Sawa/Jonathan Venter (#8 Bentley)
Rnd#3 (Thailand) – Shaun Thong/Marchy Lee (#5 Audi R8 LMS)
Rnd#4 (Thailand) – Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (#37 Ferrari 488)
Rnd#5 (Okayama) – Adderly Fong/Andrew Kim (#7 Bentley)
Rnd#6 (Okayama) – Marchy Lee/Shaun Thong (#5 Audi R8 LMS)
Rnd#7 (Fuji) – Carlo Van Dam/Piti Bhirombhakdi (#11 Ferrari 458)
Rnd#8 (Fuji) – Andrea Amici/Edoardo Liberati (#55 Lamborghini)
Rnd#9 (Shanghai#1) – Davide Rizzo/Anthony Liu (#37 Ferrari 488)
Rnd#10 (Shanghai#1) – Keita Sawa/Jonathan Venter (#8 Bentley)
Rnd#11 (Shanghai#2) – Alex Yoong/Alex Au (#6 Audi R8 LMS)
Rnd#12 (Shanghai#2) – Jeroen Mul/Marco Mapelli (#15 Lamborghini)

0. The number of retirements suffered by the #5 Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong on their way to second in the 2016 championship.

0.023 The margin by which Alex Yoong claimed pole at Shanghai in October over Davide Rizzo, Yoong’s margin over fellow Audi driver Franky Cheng at Shanghai in August, just 25 one thousandths..!

0.052 Anthony Liu’s margin of victory over Vutthikorn Inthrapuvsak during race one at Shanghai in August, the margin over third.. just 0.221 seconds!

1. The number everyone was looking for in 2016, but the number that was taken by Lamborghini Squadra Corse’s Edoardo Liberati and Andrea Amici.

2. The number of pole positions credited to Absolute Racing’s Adderly Fong, the Bentley driver claiming two in the first three races of the season to claim the coveted Motul Pole Position award, by season’s end, both Andrea Amici and Alex Yoong also recorded two poles.

3. The most number of wins recorded by a single team in the 2016 season, the #8 Bentley of Keita Sawa and Jonathan Venter.

4. The number of marques who claimed victory in the 2016 GT Asia Series; Audi (3x wins), Bentley (4x wins), Ferrari (3x wins) and Lamborghini (2x wins), although that number becomes 5 when you consider Ferrari won with both the 458 Italia and the new 488 GT3.

6. The number of times the #37 Ferrari have been on the podium in six starts at Korea International Circuit, three of those were wins!

7. A Series high number of podium finishes from 12 starts for the FFF Racing Team by ACM pairing of Edoardo Liberati and Andrea Amici.

9. The number of wins Japanese veteran Keita Sawa has taken in GT Asia across the last three seasons – four of those coming alongside 2014 champion Mok Weng Sun in the Clearwater Racing Ferrari.

11. The number of cars that qualified within a second of the pole man – Alex Yoong – ahead of round nine of the season at Shanghai, those 11 cars included entries from Audi, Bentley, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche and Ferrari (both 488 and 458) – across the full Formula One length layout with a two minute plus lap, that was impressive in anyone’s language.

12. The number of rounds in the 2016 season, starting from South Korea in May, and running through till Shanghai in October.

17. Different nationalities contested the 2016 GT Asia Series, with drivers from all corners of the world, from Europe, India, Australia, the USA and across Asia.

31. The number of starts Alex Yoong made ahead of his maiden win in the GT Asia Series.

41.085 The greatest margin of victory during a round of the 2016 season, going to TP12 Racing’s Piti Bhirombhakdi on his way to victory in the opening race at Fuji.

363. The number of laps contested during the 2016 GT Asia Series.

1748.85 The number of kilometres across which the 2016 GT Asia Series was contested.

2016 delivered a season that saw 13-drivers in mathematical contention heading into the final event of the year and the 2017 championship promises to deliver even more of the door-to-door action that had legions of fans all over the world following every second of every race this year live.

“Off the back of such a great season we knew we needed to provide another forward step and the early release of the 2017 calendar gives us the opportunity to work with both existing and new teams to prepare for what I’m sure will be another epic season,” said David Sonenscher, the CEO of Motorsport Asia.

As it did in 2016, the season will start with an official two-day pre-season test – this time  at Sepang in Malaysia, the Series returning to the Malaysian F1 venue for the first time since 2015. A return to Korea in May will kick off the next leg of the 2017 season, before a mid-season run through two popular GT Asia Series regulars – Fuji in Japan and then Chang International Circuit in Thailand. Then it’s on to China for events at the new Zhejiang circuit and the ever-popular Shanghai venue, the scene of the final event of the 2016 season.

“It’s great to go back to Asia’s leading circuits, venues that are regulars on the F1 program, whilst we are also just finalizing a spectacular feature event for next year. We currently have two options and will be making a decision on which one will be on the 2017 calendar shortly.

“We are starting earlier in 2017 – which was something teams pushed for very strongly – and that allows us to extend the calendar from 12 rounds to 14, another of the things they advised they were keen to do.

“As we did in 2016, we will once again employ a world standard BOP, we will adopt a similar driver structure to what we employed in 2016 with a change for our existing Silver-Silver ranked drivers to make it even more competitive and have it all managed once more by an experienced international team of officials.

“We will campaign four classes of competition – outright GT3, GTM, GTC and an all-new category for cars that comply with GT4 regulations which will be exclusively for amateur drivers.

“Live television will once again feature strongly and we’re in discussion with additional channels for the promotion of the Series that will take the profile of GT Asia to another level again in 2017.”

Already a number of Asia’s leading teams have committed to the 2017 GT Asia Series with long-term agreements in place that will ensure the future of the category, a sign Motorsport Asia’s experience in the Asian market is well recognized amongst the regions most experienced and professional teams.

“Our focus is on the future and continuing to evolve what has become one of the most recognized GT championships in the world,” Sonenscher added. “We have some great relationships in place already for the new year and we’re working on some fantastic new partnerships with the commercial sector to provide another level of excitement and depth to the Series as well. It’s an exciting time.”

2017 GT Asia Series – calendar
TEST DAYS, 7-8 March – Sepang, Malaysia
Rnd#1/#2, 10-12 March – Sepang, Malaysia
Rnd#3/#4, 12-14 May – South Korea
Rnd#5/#6, 2-4 June – Fuji, Japan
Rnd#7/#8, 23-25 June – Buriram, Thailand
Rnd#9/#10, 4-6 August – Zhejiang, China
Rnd#11/#12, 1-3 September – Shanghai, China
TBC – 7-9 July or 29 Sept.-1 Oct.

During the demanding day, which was characterised by two different races under a pouring rain, the two drivers managed to confirm their title victory by arriving seventh in Race 1 and third in Race 2. Their journey had not been easy, especially considering the long and thorough battle they had endured with the Ferrari 488 GT3, driven by Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo.

Victories were not to end as fast for the Lamborghini team. Indeed, Race 2 saw the triumph of a second Lamborghini Huracan GT3. The car also came from the successful FFF Racing Team and was driven by the amazingly fast Jeron Mul and Marco Mapelli from Lamborghini Motorsport department.

The final victory of the GT Asia Series by Andrea Amici and Edoardo Liberati was slowly secured throughout a long season of conquered podiums: second in Korea, third in Thailand, second in Okayama, third and second at Fuji, second and third in Shanghai. A solid consistency by the two drivers, topped with the reliable and optimal performance of the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 provided the perfect combination to bring home the demanded Asian title.

A comment of pride and satisfaction was left by Giorgio Sanna, Head of Motorsport of Automobili Lamborghini:

“We are extremely proud of this very first championship that we have secured with our young Huracán GT3. Our car witnessed its debut in the GT Asia Series and so far has only  been competing for a year in the Customer Racing. Our pride also comes from our drivers, who have been trained and raised from when they were younger inside the Lamborghini Squadra Corse. Andrea Amici and Edoardo Liberati started off racing in our one-make series Lamborghini Super Trofeo and are now competing thanks to our GT3 Junior Program for talented drivers. A warm thank you also goes to the FFF Racing Team for their extraordinary work throughout the entire season”

Mul made his GT Asia Series debut with FFF Racing when the Italy-based team doubled-up its efforts by fielding a second Lamborghini Huracan in the penultimate round of the championship at the SIC in August.

The 26-year old from the Netherlands shook the established runners by securing a convincing pole position and threatening for podium finishes, therefore FFF Racing feels his continued involvement will strengthen its bid for the championship title as the GT Asia Series returns to Shanghai for its much-anticipated grand finale.

Mapelli, meanwhile, is new to FFF Racing. The 29-year old finished runner-up as an official Birel and Top Kart driver in the Italian and European Karting Championships but began his car racing career with partial Formula Renault campaigns and a Rookie Championship win in Australian Formula 3.

A switch to sportscars yielded class titles in the Italian Ferrari Challenge and Italian GT Championship, but 23 race wins and 55 podiums have been achieved in a wide array of high profile GT championships since then and his remarkable record has been recognised by Lamborghini’s motorsport division.

FFF Racing Team Owner, Sean Fu Songyang, said: “FFF Racing is delighted to have Jeroen Mul back and it’s a pleasure to welcome somebody of Marco Mapelli’s calibre to the fold. The 2016 season has been a huge success for FFF Racing and this is validated by the GT Asia standings, which is headed by Andrea Amici and Edoardo Liberati. However, so much is riding on the outcome of this week’s season finale and that’s why we’re throwing everything at it, with the support of Lamborghini Squadra Corse, Jeroen and Marco.”

Richard Lyons and Frank Yu in the #88 Porsche will be unmissable in Shanghai thanks to a brand new livery, its striking red and white design drawing inspiration from event title sponsor, Shang Peng’s, corporate colours. After some bad luck prevented the pair from tasting success in Shanghai in August, Lyons and Yu are determined to deliver on their performance in front of the thousands of Shang Peng fans that will be out in force to cheer them on. The #88 pair has extensive experience at the Shanghai International Circuit and with numerous pole positions, podiums and race wins between them, the Shang Peng Porsche is in with a strong chance of success this Thursday.

#91 VLT Porsche drivers Darryl O’Young and Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi are ready to build on what they learnt during the Porsche 911 GT3 R’s debut in China in August. Craft-Bamboo was able to collect valuable amounts of race and track data during the last two rounds that they will be using to their advantage to optimize the car’s setup and give them the best chance at the podium on Thursday. With Bhirombhakdi now having competed at the 5.4km Formula One circuit, the young Thai driver is well prepared to make a strong push from the very first practice session on Wednesday. His focus will be on nailing the perfect flying lap in qualifying later that afternoon to ensure that he starts at the pointy end of the grid for the final race of the season. Paired with O’Young, who has considerable experience in Shanghai and scored a double win at the circuit last season, the VLT Porsche will be making a final charge for the podium this Thursday before the car heads to the Guia Circuit for the 63rd Macau Grand Prix.

To watch the Shanghai season finale of the GT Asia Series, you can stream both races live at www.gtasiaseries.com

If you are in China, you can watch the live stream on LeTV’s online network.

Both races will also be broadcast live on Fox Sports 3 and Star Sports in the Asian region. Please see tv.foxsportsasia.com for your country’s schedule.

The #88 Shang Peng Porsche 911 GT3 R’s pursuit of the 2016 GT Asia Series title would not have been possible without Shang Peng and W66.com.

The #91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R’s pursuit of the 2016 GT Asia Series title would not have been possible without VLT, Singha Estate, TMB and AIS.

It also would not have been possible without our Team Partners: Gravity, POAD, Orangebus, Dixcel, freem and Tunewear.

Race Timetable (GMT +8)

Wednesday, 19th October 2016

09:00 – 10:30 GT Asia Series Official Practice 1
11:30 – 13:00 GT Asia Series Official Practice 2
16:00 – 16:15 GT Asia Series Qualifying Session 1
16:25 – 16:40 GT Asia Series Qualifying Session 2

Thursday, 20th October

1030 – 1130 GT Asia Series Race 1 (60 mins)
1430 – 1530 GT Asia Series Race 2 (60 mins)

Quotes

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Frank Yu, Driver

“The Shanghai International Circuit is a great track and we are glad to be back here and racing with Shang Peng. We were able to collect a lot of valuable data in the last round and we hope to use this to our advantage. Both Richard and I are very experienced here and we want to finish the season with some really good results for our championship and all the fans of Shang Peng who have come to Shanghai to support us.”  

Richard Lyons, Driver

“The final rounds have come quite quickly and we haven’t had the season we had hoped for. However, Shanghai is a strong circuit for us and I hope that we put in a strong performance as all the team has worked so hard. A podium would be a great reward to end the season with.”

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Darryl O’Young, Driver

“It is now the final round of the GT Asia Series this year, of course it has been a tough year, last year we were fighting for the championship win and this year we are not. But, I think as a team we have made a lot of progress over the past season and I believe we are getting stronger each race and hopefully we can wrap the season up with a strong performance here in Shanghai. It is also the final chance to prepare for the Macau Grand Prix, which is a major event for us. Hopefully we can continue pushing forward and be ready for the big race at the end of the year.”

Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi, Driver

“Going into the final two races of 2016 season, there is so much to reflect upon on in my first season of GT3 racing. It was a steep learning curve, especially racing on these circuits for the first time. Luckily, I was able to adjust and improve over the course of the season with the help of the team, who are also getting adjusted to the 911 GT3 R. I’m looking forward to going back to Shanghai again and taking what we learnt from the last race weekend there. Hopefully we can apply this to the two races and finish the year in a strong position.”

Richard Coleman, CEO of Craft-Bamboo Racing

“We are back in Shanghai for the final round of the GT Asia season and are looking to finish off with some strong results in both races. It has been a challenging time for us over the course of this season, but everyone has worked incredibly hard to find improvements with each passing weekend. It is fantastic to be able to finish off the season under event title sponsor Shang Peng, who is also supporting our #88 Porsche that is decorated in a stunning new livery for the final two rounds.”

There’s just nine-points separating the top two teams with 36-points on offer across the two races, and whilst rising young Italian stars Edoardo Liberati and Andrea Amici lead the championship in their stunning black Roger Dubuis Lamborghini Huracan GT3, local heroes Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo have every chance of turning the tables at their home circuit.

Across the 10-races that have so far made up the 2016 season, we’ve seen six different winning combinations, so should either of the top teams falter, there is no shortage of challengers who will take the fight into Thursday afternoon’s final race.

The Series coming down to the wire is not unusual for GT Asia, but in season 2016, the number of drivers capable of claiming the crown has dramatically increased – 11-drivers still in mathematical contention.

After a testing few weeks ahead of the conclusion to the 2016 Series, the final event has been forced to concede to a two-day, mid-week format, although nothing will change with the race length, the two final rounds contested across a 60-minute – compulsory pit stop – format, however unlike much of the current season, both races will be held on a single day, something which will have an impact on strategy with the title on the line.

“We’re really looking forward to the final event of the season – the ‘GT Asia Series Shang Peng Race of Shanghai’”, Motorsport Asia CEO David Sonenscher admitted. “The depth of competition in the Series this year is incredible – the best in our six-year history – effectively every car in the field is capable of the podium which makes the result completely unpredictable and that also means there’s no guarantee of who will claim the title this year.

“It’s great to have Shang Peng join the Series for the final too, and we look forward to providing them, their associates and our legions of fans live on network television and online around the world a race to remember – it will certainly be a fitting conclusion to the season.”

Teams will hit the Shanghai circuit for the first time on Wednesday morning (19 October) at 9:00am for the first of two 90-minute practice sessions, the second coming at 11:30am, before the two 15-minute qualifying sessions set the grid for the two races on Thursday, and whilst qualifying is important, in season 2016 the pole-sitter has won only three of the ten rounds contested, so it’s by no means a guarantee of a podium finish..

During the August event the pace-setters were Audi, with Phoenix Racing Asia’s Alex Yoong, Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong consistently at the top of the timesheets. Sadly for Lee and Thong a technical issue sidelined them early in opening qualifying forcing two rear of field starts, the duo though working their way from the back to positions inside the top five. Should they carry on that impressive form, they could well surprise the points leaders.

Bottom-line is that if you have the ability to watch this event unfold LIVE on FOX Sports Asia or Star TV, or LIVE online, make sure you do, these two races have the foundations to become the greatest GT Asia Series rounds ever contested..!

WHO TO WATCH OUT FOR;
If you can predict the race winners and ultimately the championship winners, you’d have to be in possession of a crystal ball because there is no guarantee that the two 60-minute races will provide a predictable result..

On points you could argue that the two FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini drivers are in the box seat with their nine point championship lead, but that would be discounting some of the best teams in Asia.

The local BBT team are strong in Shanghai, and they’ll be ruing some difficult strategy decisions last time out that saw them leave Shanghai’s tenth round with a nine-point Series deficit – they’re a sharp operation though, and aided by the resources and knowledge of Ferrari’s AF Corse, they will be throwing everything they have at Liu and Rizzo to go after the crown.

That said, Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong and the three Bentley Team Absolute cars are all in contention for the crown, and all are having a strong finish to the season, so discount them at your peril..!

HOW TO FOLLOW SHANGHAI;
In fantastic news for the category, Fox Sports Asia will broadcast both races live to millions of viewers throughout the Asian region as the action unfolds and for those that miss it with mid-week commitments, they will replay both races in full on the Sunday immediately following the event (check http://tv.foxsportsasia.com/ for scheduled times). In China, Star Sports will also broadcast both races live, whilst China’s popular online network LeTv will also host both races live, the network one of 27-online platforms that saw the fifth event of the season at Shanghai broadcast to more than 6.3-million viewers across China.

Of course, both races will also be streamed live online through www.gtasiaseries.com

Details of the streams and the broadcast times will be available on the GT Asia Series website – www.gtasiaseries.com – and through social media; www.facebook.com/GTAsiaSeries will also post news, video clips, images and updates, and you can also get involved in the conversation on www.twitter.com/GTAsiaSeries

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SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT;
Jiading, Shanghai, China
Track length: 5.451-kilometres
Corners: 16
Rotation: clockwise
Designer/Circuit first opened: Hermann Tilke, 2004
GT3 Lap record: 2:06.224 – Race (Maro Engel – Mercedes-AMG GT3, August 2016), 2:05.906  – Qualifying (Alex Yoong – Audi R8 LMS GT3, August 2016)
Number of times GT Asia Series has competed at Sepang previously: 3 (2014/2015/2016)

GT ASIA AND SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT
The final will see GT Asia’s second visit to the 5.5-kilometre Grand Prix circuit this year, and the fourth in the six year history of the Series.

During previous visits (2014-2015), the Series competed on the shorter ‘national’ circuit, but last time out in August, teams were treated to the full length 16-turn Formula One layout and the pace was impressive.

Qualifying saw 11 cars covered by less than a second over a 2:05-minute lap, whilst the opening race saw three cars – all different marques – cross the line just two tenths of a second apart after 60-minutes of intense racing, and the Series finale should provide nothing less!

In the previous three visits to Shanghai, wins have fallen in favour of Darryl O’Young (two wins), Keita Sawa (two wins) and Jonathan Venter (one win), whilst Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo also have the impressive record of finishing on the podium in four of their six starts their to date, including two wins themselves.

HOW THINGS PLAYED OUT LAST TIME AT SHANGHAI..
2016 GT Asia Series – Rnd#9 (60-minutes – 28-laps) – 20 August
Pole position: Alex Yoong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:05.906
1. Davide Rizzo/Anthony Liu (BBT Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
2. Duncan Tappy/Vutthikorn (Absolute Team Bentley Continental GT3) +0.052
3. Alex Yoong/Alex Au (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +0.221

2016 GT Asia Series – Rnd#10 (60-minutes – 28-laps) – 20 August
Pole position: Jeroen Mul (FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini GT3) – 2:06.297
1. Keita Sawa/Jonathan Venter (Absolute Team Bentley Continental GT3)
2. Andrea Amici/Edoardo Liberati (FFF Racing Team Lamborghini GT3) +11.515
3. Vutthikorn/Duncan Tappy (Absolute Team Bentley Continental GT3) +13.386

——————————————————–

Rnd#11/#12 – 2016 GT Asia Series
Shanghai International Circuit, China
GT Asia Series Shang Peng Race of Shanghai
Schedule (CST – GMT +8)

Wednesday, 19 October
09:00 – Practice #1 (90-minutes)
11:30 – Practice #2 (90-minutes)
16:00 – Qualifying #1 (15-minutes)
16:25 – Qualifying #2 (15-minutes)

Thursday, 20 October
10:30 – Race#1 (60-minutes)
14:30 – Race#2 (60-minutes)

——————————————————-

GT3 Championship points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (119-points), 2. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (110), 3. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (96), 4. Marchy Lee/Shaun Thong (94), 5. Adderly Fong/Andrew Kim (92), 6. Jonathan Venter (91), 7. Keita Sawa, Piti Bhirombhakdi/Carlo Van Dam (84), 8. Duncan Tappy (81), 9. Alex Yoong/Alex Au (80), 10. Frank Yu/Richard Lyons, Tim Sugden (56), 11. Darryl O’Young/Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (49), 12. Jono Lester (32), 13. Mok Weng Sun (28), 14. George Miedecke (18), 15. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 16. George Richardson (14), 17. Ashley Walsh, Franky Cheng/JingZu Sun, Richard Wee (13), 18. Philip Ma (10), 19. Andrew Palmer (8), 20. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 21. Nathan Morcom (5)

Pro-Am Cup points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Anthony Liu (123-points), 2. Shaun Thong (119), 3. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (110), 4. Andrew Kim (109), 5. Piti Bhirombhakdi (105), 6. Alex Au (100), 7. Frank Yu (76), 8. Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (72), 9. Philip Ma (25), 10. Mok Weng Sun (17), 10. JingZu Sun (16)

Pro Cup points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (119), 2. Davide Rizzo (110), 3. Marchy Lee (94), 4. Adderly Fong (92), 5. Jonathan Venter (91), 6. Keita Sawa, Carlo Van Dam (84), 8. Duncan Tappy (81), 9. Alex Yoong (80), 11. Tim Sugden (62), 12. Richard Lyons (56), 13. Darryl O’Young (50), 14. Jono Lester (32), 15. George Miedecke (17), 16. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 17. George Richardson (14), 18. Franky Cheng, Ashley Walsh (13), 20. Andrew Palmer (8), 21. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 23. Nathan Morcom (4)

GT Cup points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Kantasak Kusiri/Bhurit Bhirombhakdi (84-points), 3. Voravud Bhirombhakdi/Tin Sritra (34), 5. Aekrat Discharoen (32), 6. Suttiluck Buncharoen, Toshihito Funai/Masayuki Ueda (16), 9. Akihiro Asai/Ken Seto (14)

A fine team display at the SIC in August ensured FFF Racing and drivers Liberati and Amici kept a nine-point lead in the overall Drivers’ and Pro Cup standings over their primary title rivals, Davide Rizzo and Anthony Liu Xu.

FFF Racing is fielding a pair of Roger Dubuis-liveried Lamborghinis to bolster its championship charge, but time and attention will be primarily dedicated to the #55 car of Liberati and Amici as the curtain falls on the 2016 GT Asia Series in Shanghai.

Second position in the most recent instalment at the SIC followed a victory and a pair of podiums in Japan, third place in Thailand and second place in South Korea, but it all comes down to the grand finale, and the outcome of two hour-long races will determine whether or not FFF Racing’s trophy cabinet will be enhanced by GT Asia championship silverware.

FFF Racing Team Owner, Sean Fu Songyang, said: “FFF Racing enters the last round of the GT Asia Series in Shanghai with a very small nine-point lead in the Drivers’ and Pro Cup standings, but with two races to go, anything can happen. The team is ready, Edoardo (Liberati) and Andrea (Amici) have driven brilliantly all year so, all being well, I believe we as a team will bring this championship back to FFF Racing trophy cabinet. Bring it on!”

13-drivers are still in the Series with a mathematical chance of championship victory heading to the Chinese event, which due to a last-minute change forced upon Motorsport Asia by an external event promoter has seen the date change to mid-week, with the final now scheduled for Wednesday 19 October and Thursday 20 October.

As a result Fox Sports Asia (and Star Sports China), have committed to cover both final races LIVE, whilst Fox Sports will also replay both races on Sunday 23 October for those who were unable to catch all the live action as it unfolded.

In addition, China’s popular online network LeTv will also host both races live, the network one of 27-online platforms that saw the fifth event of the season at Shanghai (19-21 August) broadcast to more than 6.3-million viewers across China.

“I have to say, this is fantastic news, and thanks to Fox International Channels for supporting us with the final after what has been a particularly challenging month for the category, with promoters failing to deliver on promises,” Motorsport Asia Limited CEO David Sonenscher admitted.

“There’s no question that the 2016 season has been the closest on record. Six different teams in four different marques – five different models – have taken wins in the ten races so far, whilst the most recent round saw 11 cars separated by less than a second in qualifying, and two tenths of a second covered three marques at the line after 60-minutes of intense competition..!

“It really has been a season to remember with some incredible racing across every round, so it’s really only fitting that we are able to show both races of the final round live and to continue to promote GT Asia to the growing fan-base in China who have clearly taken to the category with great interest.”

Schedule; 2016 GT Asia Series
FINAL, Shanghai International Circuit, China (19-20 October)
Thursday, 20 October 2016 (CST – GMT +8)
Race One (60-minutes): 10:30am
Race Two (60-minutes): 2:30pm

So far there have been six different winning combinations across the ten races so far, and despite there being just two races to go, there is still absolutely no guarantee of who will be standing on the top step of the championship podium at the conclusion of the 2016 Series.

Last time out in Shanghai we were given another glimpse of just how close the title race has been, with 11 cars [five marques] separated by less than one second in qualifying [across a 2:05-minute lap], whilst the opening race saw three cars from three different manufacturers separated by just two tenths of a second after 60-minutes of intense racing..

Currently the championship lead is held by rising young Italian stars Edoardo Liberati and Andrea Amici from the FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini operation, the two factory Lamborghini Squadra Corse junior drivers have been both fast and consistent all season, with six podium finishes to their name, but with just one round win in Fuji.

They come into the final round just nine points clear of two-time 2016 winners Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo, the two Ferrari drivers have immense experience at home in Shanghai, and were winners last time out at the Chinese Formula One venue.

Just 14 points back, is another team that has been quietly going about their business since the start of the season. Led by Thailand’s Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak, the #9 Bentley Team Absolute machine has been on the podium four times this season, and every one of those starts has seen Englishman Duncan Tappy in the co-pilot’s seat.

Vutthikorn started the season alongside American Andrew Palmer before an accident at home in the US sidelined the rising young Absolute Racing star. That saw 2015 GT Asia race-winner Tappy drafted back into the equation to put the #9 car on the podium for both races in Thailand, before German Bentley factory driver Christer Jons took over the wheel. Sadly for Jons a less than ideal event at Okayama saw Tappy back for Fuji, and for Shanghai where the Englishman again assisted Vutthikorn to back-to-back podiums. Vutthikorn is a long-shot for championship victory, however one slip by the leading teams, and just like recent years, it could all come down to the final race of the year..

The Bentley Team Absolute operation too will have their hands full in the title chase, with 2015 GT Asia Series runner-up Adderly Fong and team-mate Andrew Kim just four points back from Vutthikorn, whilst three-time 2016 winner Jonathan Venter is just a solitary point behind them. Venter’s team-mate Keita Sawa too is within mathematical reach of the title, and is just seven points back from Venter after missing a round to compete in the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hour race, but at 35-points behind the points leaders, he’d need a minor miracle to claim the crown, but could be more than instrumental in assisting team-mate Venter to victory, especially as they too were winners last time out at Shanghai.

Separating the Bentley teams on the points table are two-time 2016 winners Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong. Campaigning the brilliant gold AAPE by Bathing Ape Audi R8 LMS GT3 for Lee’s Phoenix Racing Asia outfit, they sit just 25 points behind the points leading Lamborghini, but importantly they showed at Shanghai last time out that the Audi was the car to beat. Sadly for them, a broken gearbox in qualifying saw them start last in both races, but they completed the round with a fourth and fifth placed finish, and were regularly the fastest car on the circuit – an ominous sign perhaps for the points leaders.

For the outright leaders though, their job will be to maintain their consistency, whilst for Liu and Rizzo they need to go on maximum attack, but they have shown over the last three seasons in Shanghai, that they’re up to the challenge. That said, so too are the FFF duo, who last time out matched the local stars on points with 25 apiece – under those conditions, Liberati and Amici would become the 2016 champions..

The key however might be team-mates, and whilst neither team has publicly declared they will include a second team to the entry list, both have already shown over the last two seasons that they are prepared to add a second car – BBT in 2015 at Shanghai with Max Wiser and Jiang Xin, whilst last time out FFF drafted in Squadra Corse factory stars Jeroen Mul and Richard Antinucci. The result of that second Lamborghini was a comfortable podium finish for Liberati and Amici in race two, whilst Liu and Rizzo were forced to use up their tyres early trying to get around the #15 entry, before fading to a tenth placed finish. They won’t make that mistake a second time..

Just as it did in 2015 – and for that matter, every season prior – the final round will provide plenty of action and intrigue, and if there’s one thing that can be guaranteed, that’s the fact that the title race will go all the way down to the wire, with no quarter given..! Don’t miss this one, it will be memorable!

GT3 Championship points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (119-points), 2. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (110), 3. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (96), 4. Marchy Lee/Shaun Thong (94), 5. Adderly Fong/Andrew Kim (92), 6. Jonathan Venter (91), 7. Keita Sawa, Piti Bhirombhakdi/Carlo Van Dam (84), 8. Duncan Tappy (81), 9. Alex Yoong/Alex Au (80), 10. Frank Yu/Richard Lyons, Tim Sugden (56), 11. Darryl O’Young/Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (49), 12. Jono Lester (32), 13. Mok Weng Sun (28), 14. George Miedecke (18), 15. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 16. George Richardson (14), 17. Ashley Walsh, Franky Cheng/JingZu Sun, Richard Wee (13), 18. Philip Ma (10), 19. Andrew Palmer (8), 20. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 21. Nathan Morcom (5)

Pro-Am Cup points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Anthony Liu (123-points), 2. Shaun Thong (119), 3. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (110), 4. Andrew Kim (109), 5. Piti Bhirombhakdi (105), 6. Alex Au (100), 7. Frank Yu (76), 8. Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (72), 9. Philip Ma (25), 10. Mok Weng Sun (17), 10. JingZu Sun (16)

Pro Cup points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (119), 2. Davide Rizzo (110), 3. Marchy Lee (94), 4. Adderly Fong (92), 5. Jonathan Venter (91), 6. Keita Sawa, Carlo Van Dam (84), 8. Duncan Tappy (81), 9. Alex Yoong (80), 11. Tim Sugden (62), 12. Richard Lyons (56), 13. Darryl O’Young (50), 14. Jono Lester (32), 15. George Miedecke (17), 16. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 17. George Richardson (14), 18. Franky Cheng, Ashley Walsh (13), 20. Andrew Palmer (8), 21. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 23. Nathan Morcom (4)

GT Cup points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Kantasak Kusiri/Bhurit Bhirombhakdi (84-points), 3. Voravud Bhirombhakdi/Tin Sritra (34), 5. Aekrat Discharoen (32), 6. Suttiluck Buncharoen, Toshihito Funai/Masayuki Ueda (16), 9. Akihiro Asai/Ken Seto (14)

“At the most recent round of the GT Asia Series in Shanghai, we were able to provide the live program to 27 different online media platforms in China, with a recorded viewing audience of more than 6.3-million people,” David Sonenscher, the CEO of Motorsport Asia Limited confirmed.

“From the opening round in South Korea we were able to see significant jumps in our media numbers, thanks to the FOX Sports and Star Sports live figures, but China was always an audience we were focused on with our social media platforms, and we were able to get a glimpse of the size of that market with the Shanghai event.

“Overall our media figures have been up significantly, from online, to television and importantly, these numbers are global. GT Asia has also appeared in all the major motorsport media around the world this year, it has achieved significant print exposure through the efforts and successes of our drivers both within the Series and internationally, and our social media figures are regularly in the millions.”

With just one event remaining on the 2016 calendar and with 13 drivers in with a mathematical chance of championship victory, there is really no surprise that the profile of the GT Asia Series has taken a big step forward this year, the competition has been immense, with almost any car in the field capable of making the podium.

“Shanghai was a prime example of how close things have been,” Sonenscher added. “We had eleven cars within a second in qualifying – that was five different marques – and the opening race saw three cars cross the line after 60-minutes of intense racing covered by just two tenths of a second. That has to make us one of the most competitive GT categories racing anywhere in the world!”

The GT Asia Series is sanctioned by the FIA as an International Series and is clearly recognised as the Region’s leading GT Championship. It is solely managed and promoted by Motorsport Asia Ltd and is backed by Singha, Michelin, KW Automotive, Motul, Race Room, Panta, YOFC and Tunewear.

Always a popular venue on the calendar and the scene of the closest finish in GT Asia history three weeks ago, the Shanghai circuit will once more play host to the hottest marques on the planet with the final two rounds of the championship held on the same October date as originally scheduled (21-23 October).

“We had big plans for Zhejiang and were fully in support of their proposal to develop another great international venue in China, but sadly, despite assurances all year to the contrary, they’ve been unable to complete the circuit construction ahead of our scheduled date, so we had no other option but to find an alternate venue,” David Sonenscher, the CEO of Motorsport Asia explained.

“It’s disappointing in many ways, not the least being that the industry needs to support the development of new venues in Asia and we felt we were at the forefront of providing that support, but for the sake of our competitors, we needed an alternative that was going to provide the best solution to the challenge we were facing, and a return to Shanghai delivered that solution.”

Just three weeks ago, Shanghai was the scene of one of the best events in GT Asia Series history. Mercedes-AMG made a return to the category after a three-year absence and was one of six marques that qualified less than one second from pole on the full-length Formula One circuit! That very same afternoon during the opening race, Ferrari, Bentley and Audi were separated by just two tenths of a second on the line after 60-minutes of intense door-to-door racing, paving the way for a similar result for the season finale.

“Our schedule will be slightly different this time around given the program we’re running to,” Sonenscher explained. “Qualifying will come on Friday afternoon, with the penultimate race of the season on Saturday morning ahead of the final race of the year on Sunday afternoon where we’ll crown the 2016 GT Asia Series champions.”

Returning to the AMG fold for the Shanghai round of the GT Asia Series, Solomon rejoined the marque for whom the then 17-year old claimed victory at Zhuhai in China alongside two-time Formula One world champion Mika Hakkinen.

Paired with another rising young star, this time Germany’s Nico Bastian in the new-for-2016 Mercedes-AMG GT3, the duo proved to be more than a match for their highly rated team-mate Maro Engel, and the established stars of GT Asia, but sadly a technical challenge and a pit-stop problem kept the two young charges from the podium, but not before Solomon had shown race winning pace.

Just a week later Solomon received a last minute call to join Australian GT regular Mark Griffith in Sydney for a three-hour endurance event in an Erebus Motorsport SLS AMG GT3 – the very car that had taken him to that Zhuhai victory three years prior – an opportunity that was too good to pass up, Solomon again showing impressive pace to bring the car inside the top five ahead of the first round of pit stops.

For the former open-wheel star, his year has proven challenging, but the outright Australian GT round winner earlier this year having taken the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 to their second ever official victory, just a day after claiming the marques first official podium finish at the Australian Grand Prix, is keeping fit and juggling his studies with plans for a return to the circuit full-time in 2017.

“There’s a lot of things under discussion at present because I’m a racer, and I want to keep racing, but studying economics is also keeping me busy. There are a few exciting things planned, and I’m looking to spend a lot of next year behind the wheel, and the two races with Mercedes-AMG in the last couple of weeks have really served to remind me just how much I love it..!”

Rnd#9/10, 2016 GT Asia Series
Shanghai International Circuit, China (19-21 August, 2016)
After a three year sabbatical since Solomon and Hakkinen claimed their emphatic victory at Zhuhai in October 2013, AMG were back for the Shanghai round of the GT Asia Series and as they did in 2013, they arrived with a single goal in mind, victory.

With two cars – one for Solomon and Nico Bastian, the other for new car owner Zhang Wenhe and the ‘King of Macau’ Maro Engel – the AAI Motorsport supported Customer Racing outfit were looking for the win.

This would be the first time the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 had competed in the GT Asia Series, and the thunderous naturally-aspirated 6.3-litre V8 powered machine was quickly on the pace, running inside the top five through practice, before qualifying delivered Engel P4 and Bastian P5 in opening qualifying, Solomon matching his team-mate with P5 in session two despite campaigning used tyres.

Bastian started the opening race and was quickly onto the tail of Engel as the cars made their way down pit lane for their compulsory pit stop, and despite an additional nine-second parity penalty for the team over many of their rivals, Solomon emerged from the pits to set what at that stage were the fastest laps of the race to catch championship contender Anthony Liu in a Ferrari 488.

Sadly though, almost as soon as he tucked in under the rear wing of the Ferrari, a technical issue emerged with the car and the gearbox started selecting different gears after a gear potentiometer failed. Ultimately that forced Solomon to drop his pace, and heading into the final lap, retire the car, the team forced to replace the part overnight to be ready for the second race.

“I’m pretty devastated actually,” Solomon admitted post-race. “I had the speed early to catch and I think overtake Liu who went on to win the race, we would have been a podium finisher at worst, no problem at all, but when a technical issue like this occurs, there’s not much you can do but try and nurse the car around for the finish.”

Starting Sunday’s second 60-minute race, Solomon was again immediately in the thick of the action, but carrying the challenge of driving on older rubber he was forced to spend much of his stint defending from New Zealand’s Jono Lester in the Porsche. Ultimately he hit the pits for his compulsory pit stop from fifth, but as soon as he hit pit lane another challenge emerged.

“It was my error, I missed the pit lane timing button that starts the counter for the pit stop time we’ve been allocated,” Matt explained. “Unfortunately the back up system we had in place also had an issue, so we weren’t 100% sure how long we’d been in the pits, and by the time Nico left pit lane, we’d lost an extra 23-seconds. To add to our frustration, we finished 23 seconds behind the winner, but that was eighth place, so we were left to lament what might have been..” 


Rnd#2 2016 CAMS Australian Endurance Championship
Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW (26-28 August)
Just days after campaigning the new AMG GT3, Solomon was back ‘home’ in Sydney to continue his studies, but no sooner had he landed, than he was on his way to Sydney Motorsport Park to return to Australian GT, this time joining two-time Australian GT GT4 champion Mark Griffith in the very car in which he’d won his race in Zhuhai alongside Mika Hakkinen.

Running under the Erebus Motorsport banner once again – the team that took Hakkinen and Solomon to the win in China – Solomon was able to push with confidence the car with which he had such a great relationship, and quickly showed he would be a factor in the race, qualifying the #19 Hog’s Breath Café SLS in tenth position, just half a second shy of the points leading McLaren.

Starting the 101-lap journey from position 18 (starting position was set by combining qualifying times from both drivers), Solomon charged off the line to be 14th by lap five and fast approaching the tail of the top ten before a slight off on the run into Corporate Hill saw the big black SLS sideways into the run-off area.

“I was just pushing as hard as I could, and just ran slightly off the white line on turn in to the corner and caught the grass,” Solomon explained afterwards. “I lost seven seconds in the process, but in the overall scheme of things, that didn’t lose us any positions.”

Griffith jumped behind the wheel mid-race before handing Solomon back the car with 30 laps remaining, the 20-year old charging across the final laps of the race to move back to 15th at the chequered flag, in the process setting the fastest lap of the race for the team, five laps from home.

“It was a great race, but sadly the SLS is up against it competing with all the latest FIA GT3 equipment, as Craig Baird and Dominic Storey showed with the pace of the new AMG-GT3, but personally I was happy to be quicker than both John Bowe in the new Ferrari 488 and reigning Bathurst champion Steve Richards in the new BMW M6 GT3, so on a personal note, that was encouraging.”

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Rnd#9/10, 2016 GT Asia Series
Shanghai International Circuit, China (20 August, 2016)
Qualifying #1 (15-minutes)
1. 6. Alex Yoong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:05.906
2. 13. Franky Cheng (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:05.931
3. 9. Duncan Tappy (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:05.938
4. 68. Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.033
5. 66. Nico Bastian (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.136

Qualifying #2 (15-minutes)
1. 15. Jeroen Mul (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:06.297
2. 55. Andrea Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:06.584
3. 37. Anthony Liu (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 2:06.736
4. 8. Keita Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:06.803
5. 66. Matt Solomon (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:07.174

Race#1 (60-minutes)
1. 37. Rizzo/Liu (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 28-laps
2. 9. Tappy/Inthraphuvasak (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) +0.052
3. 6. Yoong/Au (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +0.221
4. 5. Thong/Lee (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +7.503
5. 55. Liberati/Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) +30.971
14. 66. Bastian/Solomon (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 27-laps

Shanghai International Circuit, China (21 August, 2016)
Race#2 (60-minutes)
1. 8. Venter/Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 28-laps
2. 55. Liberati/Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) +11.515
3. 9. Tappy/Inthraphuvasak (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) +13.386
4. 7. Fong/Kim (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) +14.425
5. 5. Thong/Lee (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +17.096
9. 66. Solomon/Bastian (Mercedes-AMG GT3) +23.647

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Rnd#2 2016 CAMS Australian Endurance Championship
Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW (26-28 August)
Qualifying#1 (20-minutes) – 26 August
1. 911. John Martin (Porsche GT3 R) – 1:27.0834
2. 63. Dominic Story (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 1:27.2202
3. 5. Nathan Antunes (Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 1:27.2720
4. 4. Marcus Marshall (Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 1:27.2760
5. 95. George Miedecke (Aston Martin Vantage GT3) – 1:27.4078
19. 19. Mark Griffith (Erebus Motorsport Mercedes Benz AMG SLS GT3) – 1:31.6790

Qualifying#2 (20-minutes) – 26 August
1. 23. David Russell (Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX GT3) – 1:27.2795
2. 11. Warren Luff (McLaren 650S GT3) – 1:27.6058
3. 100. Steven Richards (BMW Team SRM BMW M6 GT3) – 1:27.7819
4. 8. Cameron McConville (Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 1:27.9387
5. 911. Duvashen Padayachee (Porsche GT3 R) – 1:28.1186
10. 19. Matt Solomon (Erebus Motorsport Mercedes Benz AMG SLS GT3) – 1:28.6374

Race (101-laps) – 27 August
1. 95. George Miedecke/Andrew Miedecke (Aston Martin Vantage GT3)
2. 911. John Martin/Duvashen Padayachee (Porsche GT3 R)
3. 5. Nathan Antunes/Greg Taylor (Audi R8 LMS GT3)
4. 59. Nathan Morcom/Grant Denyer (McLaren 650S GT3)
5. 11. Tony Walls/Warren Luff (McLaren 650S GT3)
15. 19. Solomon/Griffith (Erebus Motorsport Mercedes Benz AMG SLS GT3) – 99-laps

The fact that two-time Formula One World Champion Mika Hakkinen was the man waving that flag was icing on the cake, the Mercedes-AMG ambassador treated to a fantastic display of driving that had fans on their feet over the closing laps as rain began to fall, paving the way for local hero Anthony Liu to breach an almost impossible gap to claim the win on the line, the second for the BBT Ferrari team this year.

The following day another epic drive by Keita Sawa and Jonathan Venter netted their third win of the year, putting them back in the title race, whilst the FFF Racing Team by ACM – who started the second race with both their cars on the front row – head into the final round of the season with a nine point lead after claiming second in race two.

The weekend had started with another brilliant drive, this time for Audi’s Alex Yoong, the former Formula One driver claiming pole in the opening qualifying session from England’s Duncan Tappy and fan-favourite Franky Cheng – the three cars covered by just 32 one-thousandths of a second.. In fact, the gap from pole to eleventh was less than a second, promising a battle to remember for the opening race which was contested across the full Grand Prix circuit, with a lap of over two minutes.

Session two though was very much about strategy and with the two FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3s claiming the front row from the local Ferrari of Anthony Liu, there was always likely to be fireworks. In the end the man who developed the new Lamborghini GT3 – Jeroen Mul – was too good for his team mate in qualifying, dropping Andrea Amici back to P2, and they created a headache for Liu off the line during Sunday’s second race and in the process, dropped the Ferrari team back to second in points heading into the final event of the year.

Qualifying#1
As they had done through Friday’s three official practice sessions, Audi were quick straight out of the box, but this time it was Alex Yoong who laid down the early benchmark, a time which was ultimately unbeaten across the 15-minute session. Yoong though did suffer a few anxious moments back in the garage over the dying stages of the opening qualifier as both long-time rival Franky Cheng and Bentley’s Duncan Tappy got close. In the end, the margin between the three cars was just 32 one thousandths of a second, paving the way for a momentous opening race.

Sadly for the man who had thrown down the gauntlet with the fastest lap of the day during official practice on Friday – Yoong’s Phoenix Racing Asia team-mate – Marchy Lee, he was forced to sit out much of qualifying with a technical issue with their transaxle gearbox, the team ultimately forced to make an overnight change, but the damage had been done forcing two starts from much further back in the field than they’d deserved.

Not surprisingly, AMG were right in the mix with both their cars, with very little separating the ‘King of Macau’ – Maro Engel – and the second car of Nico Bastian – Engel claimed the top spot over his younger team-mate, but the margin between the two cars was a mere 13 one hundredths of a second, for fourth and fifth on the grid. That result saw them qualify ahead of the man who had been so dominant at Shanghai in the previous two GT Asia Series visits, Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Richard Lyons.

Despite signing on the elite pairing of Richard Antinucci and Jeroen Mul to pilot the second of the FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini’s, it was the points leading #55 car who emerged on top in Q1, Edoardo Liberati posting the seventh fastest time ahead of title rival Davide Rizzo who admitted his goal for the weekend was to stay ahead of the two young Italian’s in the black Huracan..

South Korean round winner Jonathan Venter was next quickest, the young Australian admitting they weren’t working 100% in unison with their #8 Bentley Continental GT3, but that didn’t stop the Absolute Racing team from working tirelessly to find the sweet spot, whilst Antinucci rounded out the top ten.

Fuji winners Singha Motorsport were next, the first car outside the ten and still within a second of the pole time, whilst Shaun Thong was able to eke out a handful of laps before the gearbox issue sidelined the gold #5 car.

The returning Dasheng Zhang took top honours for the GruppeM Racing team, posting the 13th fastest time, whilst Tim Sugden admitted the team were struggling to find a good baseline setup for the Chinese F1 venue, and were further back than they would have liked..

Darryl O’Young claimed the 15th spot on the grid, side-by-side with 2015 title rival Adderly Fong, the Hong Kong driver just happy to be in the field after a big accident in practice forced an overnight rebuild by the Absolute Racing team, the only drama a loose turbo pipe which kept him from posting a quick lap.

Rounding out the field was the Team FIST with AAI Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo with Lin Yu behind the wheel, the GTM class crew just over four seconds shy of O’Young’s Porsche.

Qualifying#2
Ten minutes after the excitement of the opening qualifier, the teams were back in action again for Q2, and very quickly it looked like being a FFF Racing Team by ACM whitewash, with Jeroen Mul and Andrea Amici battling over the top spot whilst Friday’s pace setter Marchy Lee looked on helplessly in the garage.

As expected, Anthony Liu got in on the action and at one stage had split the two Lamborghini’s before Andrea Amici put in a late flyer to take back P2 whilst behind them, Jonathan Venter showed impressive pace to claim a fourth placed start.

Former GT Asia Series race winner Matt Solomon was next, taking the gorgeous #66 Mercedes-AMG Driving Academy-Team AAI AMG GT3 to P5 ahead of the ever-improving Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak.

Alex Au carried on the impressive pace of team-leader Alex Yoong to claim P7, just ahead of New Zealand’s returning Jono Lester who admitted that like Sugden, they were struggling to find the perfect balance in the GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R.

Sun JingZu claimed ninth in his best ever effort in qualifying, showing immense improvement, the Chinese driver proving just how comfortable the amateur drivers are with extracting pace from the new Audi R8 LMS, whilst Andrew Kim rounded out the ten, the South Korean driver lamenting a lack of laps after team-mate Fong’s accident on Friday afternoon.

Piti Bhirombhakdi was a frustrated eleventh, the Thai driver back a lot further than could have been expected, qualifying half a second clear of his cousin Naiyanobh ‘Toy’ Bhirombhakdi in the #91 VLT Porsche of reigning champion Darryl O’Young.

Li Chao was next ahead of Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Frank Yu with Jun San Chen doing an impressive job in the GTM class Lamborghini to be 15th ahead of GT3 rookie Zhang Wenhe, whilst Marchy Lee was classified last despite being stranded in the pits with a technical issue, setting up what would be an inspirational drive through the field on Sunday afternoon.

Race#1 (Round#9)
Just a week prior to Shanghai, Phoenix Racing Asia’s Alex Yoong had stormed from pole in the Audi R8 LMS Cup to victory in Malaysia holding out DTM star Edoardo Mortara in a great display of driving that was set up by some brilliant team strategy with car setup. That allowed the former F1 star to bolt away from the field off the line, and it was clear they were employing a similar strategy for the opening race in China.

Yoong very quickly grabbed the lead from Franky Cheng off the line, but Duncan Tappy had made a better start than the local hero, firing the #9 Bentley up the inside into turn one to drop Cheng back to third.

Behind them Maro Engel grabbed fourth from team-mate Nico Bastian, with Richard Lyons sixth, although the experience GT Asia Series campaigner was soon back through to fifth, taking Bastian at turn three, whilst behind them Edo Liberati managed to stay ahead of title rival Davide Rizzo.

As he had done a week before, Yoong started to eke out a small gap to Tappy, but sadly for the Malaysian, he wasn’t able to stretch or maintain it, Tappy quickly locking in under the rear wing of the Takchun/Double Duck Audi and applying maximum pressure.

Yoong did everything he could to hold the position and he did so for much of the opening stint before Tappy ultimately made a move stick up the inside at turn one, although not without the slightest of touches as Yoong moved across to try and protect his lead. From there Tappy bolted, but like Yoong, his advantage was short-lived as traffic came into play allowing the Malaysian to tuck in behind him as they came in for the compulsory pit stop [CPS] in the closing stages of the pit-stop window.

Behind the leading trio Maro Engel was sitting in a watching brief, whilst behind him, Nico Bastian had worked his way past Lyons in the Porsche to lock onto the tail of his team-mate, and at one stage in traffic, pull alongside..

Further back the championship battle was firing up, and Davide Rizzo was caught between a pair of Lamborghinis, but that battle was soon won in favour of the Ferrari who entered the pits early to bolt on a fresh set of rubber and send Anthony Liu out to complete the job.

Sadly for Richard Antinucci who’d been holding down a strong position inside the top ten, a tyre failure on the left rear after contact earlier in the race saw the American forced off the circuit and out of the race ahead of the scheduled stop.

After the stops were completed though it was Thailand’s Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak who held a strong lead over Alex Au in the #6 Audi he shared with Alex Yoong, the former Audi Cup Amateur Class champion charging early to quickly catch the #9 Bentley, whilst behind them, Anthony Liu was on a mission, working his way through the pack to be third but more than 20-seconds back with 15 minutes remaining in the race.

Au looked to be the greatest threat to Vutthikorn’s lead, but as the Audi driver was preparing to make a move, light rain began to fall, the ‘Parabolica’ especially wet which caused some concern for the Bentley driver who had been struggling with exit-oversteer.

That was all the incentive that Liu needed, the two drivers in front of him losing up to four seconds a lap on the local Ferrari as Liu ranged in to catch them for a three-way fight for the lead.

Two laps from home he made a huge dive under brakes at turn 11, running well past the corner and into the runoff zone, Alex Au later admitting he could see the Ferrari coming so braked as late as he dared, allowing Vutthikorn a brief reprieve.

Very quickly Liu was back on their tail and through on Au ahead of the final lap, the three drivers doing everything they could to hang on in the slippery conditions, with drive off the corners almost impossible to come by. In the end it came down to the final corner, with Liu side-by-side with the Bentley on the run into the final corner, but out of position for a move, but Vutthikorn was off the ideal line on the exit allowing the Ferrari to pull alongside. At the same time Au pulled inside the two of them, all three involved in a drag race to the line with limited traction, Liu getting the best of it to win by just five one hundredths of a second, with Au making it three cars across the line in two tenths of a second..

Fourth ultimately was Marchy Lee who put in a meteoric drive from towards the back of the field to finish just seven seconds behind the leaders, with Andrea Amici keeping the FFF Racing Team by ACM’s title hopes alive with fifth in the dying stages, the result drawing them equal on points with race winners Liu and Rizzo heading into the tenth round of the season.

Sadly for AMG, Amici’s result came in part as a consequence of the retirement of the Matt Solomon Mercedes-AMG GT3, the young Hong Kong driver comfortably the fastest driver on track during his early laps after the CPS, but a technical issue with the gearbox saw him rapidly drop from Liu’s tail and back down the order before the team instructed him to pull off the circuit on the final lap. A quick look at his face post-race revealed what may well have been a repeat performance of his incredible debut win in GT Asia in 2013 with Mika Hakkinen.

After a tough qualifier, Piti Bhirombhakdi drove brilliantly through the damp conditions to claim sixth, ahead of Andrew Kim in the #7 Bentley and Jono Lester who put in a storming drive over the closing laps in the #98 GruppeM Porsche.

Sun JingZu (Audi) and Keita Sawa (Bentley) completed the ten, with Maro Engel’s team-mate – rookie Zhang Wenhe – an impressive eleventh on debut despite limited laps in the new AMG GT3 and in testing conditions.

Frank Yu was next across the line in the Interush Porsche GT3 R from Li Chao in the second GruppeM Porsche, whilst the Lin/Chen combination claimed the win in the GTM Class in the Team FIST by AAI Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo.

Race#2 (Round#10)
The opening race might have been exciting but even before a lap was turned for Sunday’s tenth round race you could feel the tension in pit lane with the championship entering the last but two races of the year. The emotions continued on the grid which had attracted a number of local celebrities, one of which was Shanghai’s former NBA basketball superstar Yao Ming, standing beside him, the relatively diminutive Mika Hakkinen – this race was building up to be the highlight of the year..

As expected the FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghinis were quickly into formation in turn one, with Mul leading Amici who was holding the fast starting Liu at bay in third, the Ferrari driver though under attack from Keita Sawa and Matt Solomon.

Perfectly to the script, by the close of the lap Amici was through on Mul who acted as ‘tail gunner’ for the his title contending team-mate, keeping Liu at bay as the #55 Huracan began to punch out a sequence of fastest laps at the front of the field.

Sadly for the #37 Ferrari, there was little Liu could do about Mul, having used two sets of their prime Michelin tyres in the opening race, Liu had little to offer the leaders, instead he was doing his best to defend from attack by Sawa behind him.

For Sawa and team-mate Jonathan Venter, they knew that race two was their chance to get back into the title fight, and Sawa was on a charge. Quickly through on Liu, he set off after the leaders and quickly caught Mul who managed to stay in front ahead of his CPS. After building an eleven second lead, Amici was into the pits for his CPS at the mid-point of the race, handing the car to team-mate Edoardo Liberati who emerged from the pits behind new race leader Tim Sugden.

That lead battle very quickly became a three-way affair with Jonathan Venter emerging from pit lane to pull alongside Liberati on the run into turn one, the Australian keeping the joint points-leader at bay before settling into a comfortable rhythm to set off in pursuit of Sugden.

Venter was quickly through, but behind him – mindful of the bigger picture – Liberati took a more conservative approach and the experienced Sugden was well aware that the young Italian would not jeopardise points with any desperate moves, so he was able to hold the Lamborghini at bay for a number of laps.

Sadly, despite showing pace good enough for a podium position, Sugden was forced down pit lane, an investigation revealing that the team had released him too soon during the CPS, incurring a frustrating drive-through penalty as a result, a position which also claimed the #66 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Matt Solomon and Nico Bastian, which effectively ended their charge for the podium.

Behind the leaders Duncan Tappy and Adderly Fong were on a charge through the pack, Tappy though on older rubber, whilst Fong was taking advantage of a fresh set of tyres, the team shuffling the order to let the Hong Kong driver through, although very quickly Tappy showed his used tyre pace was better, the Englishman taking back the position in the closing stages to cross the line third, two seconds down on Liberati.

Up front though there was no denying the winner, Jonathan Venter setting a cracking pace to cross the line almost 12-seconds clear of the field, whilst Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong put in one of the drives of the day to claim fifth behind Adderly Fong after starting from the rear of the field.

Richard Antinucci crossed the line sixth, with the hard charging Alex Yoong in the #6 Audi locked under his rear wing with Franky Cheng right on his tail.

Nico Bastian recovered for ninth, with Davide Rizzo a frustrated tenth, splitting the two Mercedes-AMG GT3s, the result dropping the BBT Ferrari team to second in the points. Starting well back in the pack, Maro Engel was comfortably the fastest driver in the field over the closing laps, the 2016 Nurburgring 24-Hour race winner setting a new lap record for the F1 circuit of 2:06.224 as he battled his way through the pack.

Darryl O’Young recovered 12th for the Craft-Bamboo Racing team after a frustrating opening stanza of the race which saw his team-mate ‘Toy’ Bhirombhakdi and team-boss Frank Yu making contact on the way into turn one. That spun both cars around, and saw Yu stranded mid-circuit facing the flow of traffic and unable initially to get the car started. For a brief moment that brought the Safety Car onto the circuit, but the Series veteran was able to recover, handing Richard Lyons the car at the start of the CPS to go on and complete the race.

Carlo Van Dam was another driver forced to make a recovery, the Fuji race winner working his way back through the field despite a slow leak in a tyre to claim 13th ahead of Sugden, whilst Zhang Dasheng crossed the line on the tail of his GruppeM team-mate just clear of Lyons in the identical Porsche GT3 R, whilst Lin Yu completed the field in the GTM Class Lamborghini.

As a result of their second placed finish and the struggle across the final laps by the BBT Ferrari team, the title fight comes down to the wire once more – a haulmark of the GT Asia Series over recent years – with Liberati and Amici holding a nine point lead over Liu and Rizzo, the Ferrari drivers though just a similar distance clear of a string of teams including two-time winners Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong, Okayama winners Adderly Fong and Andrew Kim, and their Bentley team-mate Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak.

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What the drivers had to say (Rnd#9);

1. Davide Rizzo (#37 BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) 
“At the beginning I just tried to hold my qualifying position. I lost a couple of positions off the start which was pretty messy, but the main thing was to avoid any contact, but then I made them back. I had a good fight with Edoardo [Liberati], he made the job a little tougher, but I eventually got past him. The win in Shanghai was more important than thinking about the championship, we still have three races ahead to do that.”

1. Anthony Liu (#37 BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) 
“Third was our target all along, as long as Davide maintained or improved his position, the simulation showed that third would be possible. If the rain hadn’t come today, there was no way we would have won. When the rain started to fall I could see the cars around me braking earlier but I was still able to brake at the same point, that’s when I knew it was possible. I saw at turn 13 – the ‘Parabolica’ that some drifting was required, so I knew it was possible because I actually like oversteer in a car.”

2. Duncan Tappy (#9 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) 
“I much prefer to drive than watch, my nerves can’t handle it. My stint was pretty good, I got a good start and managed to tuck in behind Alex [Yoong] and over the first few laps I wondered if we had the pace to run with him, but then I could see that his tyres were starting to go off and a few places where we were quicker, so then it was just a matter of biding my time until I could find the best place to overtake, and I managed to do that in turn one. From there I pulled a bit of a gap, but the back markers allowed Alex [Yoong] to close again at the pit stop which probably didn’t help us. Vutthi did a brilliant job. We elected to stay on the same tyres we’d used in my stint, whilst everyone around us changed to fresh rubber, which in the end wasn’t the ideal scenario.”

2. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (#9 Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) 
“My pace wasn’t as good as I needed – I tried to push, but couldn’t do anything more to go quicker. It got worse after the rain started to fall, lots of oversteer, so I had to brake much earlier and be very smooth on the throttle.”

3. Alex Yoong (#6 Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) 
“I’m very happy with our first podium of the year – it’s come quite late in the year, but we’ve just been getting better and better at every round we’ve come to. We’ve been experimenting with some quite different setups and it seems to have paid off. Our long run pace in the race saw the car develop oversteer from about lap three or four, so I knew it would be a struggle. The Bentley got us just before the pit stops, but I was right on its tail as he came in. We changed tyres and Alex did a really great job, he was charging hard at the end and I really thought we had a chance for a win at one point.”

3. Alex Au (#6 Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3)
 “My only complaint is really the rain. I was catching, catching and catching and when the rain started I was catching even more – he [Bentley] really defended the inside well, I could outbrake him on the outside but there was no move there, but by the time I’d constructed an overtake, a big red car was behind me and I had to start to think about him from then on..”

What the drivers had to say (Rnd#10);

1. Keita Sawa (#8 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
 “We didn’t have such a great start to the weekend, and actually yesterday we still had some problems, but the team worked very hard on the car overnight and there were no issues today. I was more concerned with tyre conservation, so focused more on the last ten minutes before the pit stop and passed a few cars leaving my stop until the final minutes of the window to hand Jono the car. From there he was able to take the lead and pull away.”

1. Jonathan Venter (#8 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) 
“That was a hard second stint, especially without the cool suit, it made the closing laps very difficult. This was very much a team result, because yesterday we had some damage to the front and rear of the car so they worked hard overnight to make repairs and today the car was absolutely perfect. Earlier in the weekend we struggled to find the perfect balance in the car, so we sat down to figure that out and I think today showed that as a team we were able to work around that and find a good solid solution. Sawa-san had a great start as always and had good pace and when he handed across to me I knew we had a good shot for the lead and we managed to stay in front of the Lamborghini and pass the Porsche [Sugden]. Hopefully that momentum will carry over to the next race, but for now we’re going to enjoy this one..!”

2. Andrea Amici (#55 FFF Racing  by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3) 
“It’s been a hard weekend, especially when you’re fighting for a championship, you have to be very focused. We have worked as a team all weekend to have the best setup we can. Yesterday I was not so happy with my qualifying time, I made a small mistake, but my job today was to open a gap and hand the car to Edo and that meant we were in a position to get a podium finish. The final stint of the race was hard too, because Edo didn’t have fresh tyres so he had to work hard for the finish. Yesterday it was important to finish in either P5 or P6 because to keep ourselves in the championship at a minimum we have to be P5 or P6 in one race and on the podium in the other, so it was fantastic that we were able to do that in the closing laps.”

2. Edoardo Liberati (#55 FFF Racing  by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3)
 “It was really, really tough following the Porsche [Sugden] around for so long, because at this track there’s a big drop-off in tyres, especially in these temperatures and our car develops a lot of understeer when you follow someone closely behind, but I also didn’t want to take any risk of contact. We’d saved a fresh set of tyres for the second race because we knew with our extra pitstop time penalty in race one it was impossible.”

3. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (#9 Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) 
“I started in P6 and wanted to hand Duncan the car in the same position but I couldn’t manage to do that because my tyre pressures came in very late which was the plan, so I gave him the car from P7 and he put in some great moves in the final ten minutes to give us P3.”

3. Duncan Tappy (#9 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
 “Our pace was pretty similar to yesterday to be honest, but we didn’t have any new tyres for today so we had to just do our best. Yesterday we had to think about whether we’d go all out for the win, or play the numbers game and try and get some podiums for the weekend. In some ways I regretted it a bit because I would have loved the win yesterday, but two podiums was pretty good, especially in todays race when we had the additional 9-second pit stop penalty for yesterday’s result.”

Shanghai International Circuit, China (20 August, 2016)
Qualifying #1 (15-minutes)
1. 6. Alex Yoong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:05.906
2. 13. Franky Cheng (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:05.931
3. 9. Duncan Tappy (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:05.938
4. 68. Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.033
5. 66. Nico Bastian (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.136
6. 88. Richard Lyons (Craft-Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:06.157
7. 55. Edoardo Liberati (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:06.410
8. 37. Davide Rizzo (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 2:06.541
9. 8. Jonathan Venter (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:06.813
10. 15. Richard Antinucci (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:06.851
11. 12. Carlo Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 2:06.857
12. 5. Shaun Thong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:06.963
13. 96. Zhang Dasheng (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:08.010
14. 98. Tim Sugden (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:08.063
15. 91. Darryl O’Young (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:08.253
16. 7. Adderly Fong (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:11.166
17. 90. Lin Yu (Team FIST with AAI Lamborghini Super Trofeo) – 2:12.402

Qualifying #2 (15-minutes)
1. 15. Jeroen Mul (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:06.297
2. 55. Andrea Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:06.584
3. 37. Anthony Liu (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 2:06.736
4. 8. Keita Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:06.803
5. 66. Matt Solomon (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:07.174
6. 9. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:07.243
7. 6. Alex Au (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:07.827
8. 98. Jono Lester (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:08.237
9. 13. Jingzu Sun (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:08.962
10. 7. Andrew Kim (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:08.968
11. 12. Piti Bhirombhakdi (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 2:09.108
12. 91. Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (Craft-Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:09.644
13. 96. Chao Li (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:09.962
14. 88. Frank Yu (Craft-Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:10.181
15. 90. Jun San Chen (Team FIST with AAI Lamborghini Super Trofeo) – 2:11.048
16. 68. Zhang Wenhe (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:11.390
17. 5. Marchy Lee (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – NTR

Race#1 (60-minutes)
1. 37. Rizzo/Liu (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 28-laps
2. 9. Tappy/Inthraphuvasak (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) +0.052
3. 6. Yoong/Au (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +0.221
4. 5. Thong/Lee (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +7.503
5. 55. Liberati/Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) +30.971
6. 12. Van Dam/Bhirombhakdi (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3) +32.820
7. 7. Fong/Kim (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) +33.188
8. 98. Sugden/Lester (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) +38.261
9. 13. Cheng/Sun (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) +44.516
10. 8. Venter/Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) +55.751
11. 68. Engel/Zhang (Mercedes-AMG GT3) + 1:05.900
12. 88. Lyons/Yu (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) +1:34.275
13. 96. Zhang/Li (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) + 2:08.605
14. 66. Bastian/Solomon (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 27-laps
15. 91. O’Young/Bhirombhakdi (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 26-laps
16. 90. Lin/Chen (Team FIST with AAI Lamborghini Super Trofeo)
17. 15. Antinucci/Mul (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 9-laps

Shanghai International Circuit, China (21 August, 2016)
Race#2 (60-minutes)
1. 8. Venter/Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 28-laps
2. 55. Liberati/Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) +11.515
3. 9. Tappy/Inthraphuvasak (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) +13.386
4. 7. Fong/Kim (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) +14.425
5. 5. Thong/Lee (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +17.096
6. 15. Mul/Antinucci (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) +20.292
7. 6. Au/Yoong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +20.851
8. 13. Sun/Cheng (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) +21.412
9. 66. Solomon/Bastian (Mercedes-AMG GT3) +23.647
10. 37. Liu/Rizzo (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) +37.664
11. 68. Zhang/Engel (Mercedes-AMG GT3) + 44.805
12. 91. Bhirombhakdi/O’Young (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) +47.468
13. 12. Bhirombhakdi/Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3) +50.850
14. 98. Lester/Sugden (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) +54.560
15. 96. Li/Zhang (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) +55.757
16. 88. Yu/Lyons (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) +1:39.011
17. 90. Chen/Lin (Team FIST with AAI Lamborghini Super Trofeo) – 26-laps

GT3 Championship points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (119-points), 2. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (110), 3. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (96), 4. Marchy Lee/Shaun Thong (94), 5. Adderly Fong/Andrew Kim (92), 6. Jonathan Venter (91), 7. Keita Sawa, Piti Bhirombhakdi/Carlo Van Dam (84), 8. Duncan Tappy (81), 9. Alex Yoong/Alex Au (80), 10. Frank Yu/Richard Lyons, Tim Sugden (56), 11. Darryl O’Young/Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (49), 12. Jono Lester (32), 13. Mok Weng Sun (28), 14. George Miedecke (18), 15. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 16. George Richardson (14), 17. Ashley Walsh, Franky Cheng/JingZu Sun, Richard Wee (13), 18. Philip Ma (10), 19. Andrew Palmer (8), 20. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 21. Nathan Morcom (5)

Pro-Am Cup points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Anthony Liu (123-points), 2. Shaun Thong (119), 3. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (110), 4. Andrew Kim (109), 5. Piti Bhirombhakdi (105), 6. Alex Au (100), 7. Frank Yu (76), 8. Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (72), 9. Philip Ma (25), 10. Mok Weng Sun (17), 10. JingZu Sun (16)

Pro Cup points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (119), 2. Davide Rizzo (110), 3. Marchy Lee (94), 4. Adderly Fong (92), 5. Jonathan Venter (91), 6. Keita Sawa, Carlo Van Dam (84), 8. Duncan Tappy (81), 9. Alex Yoong (80), 11. Tim Sugden (62), 12. Richard Lyons (56), 13. Darryl O’Young (50), 14. Jono Lester (32), 15. George Miedecke (17), 16. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 17. George Richardson (14), 18. Franky Cheng, Ashley Walsh (13), 20. Andrew Palmer (8), 21. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 23. Nathan Morcom (4)

GT Cup points (after ten rounds of 12)
1. Kantasak Kusiri/Bhurit Bhirombhakdi (84-points), 3. Voravud Bhirombhakdi/Tin Sritra (34), 5. Aekrat Discharoen (32), 6. Suttiluck Buncharoen, Toshihito Funai/Masayuki Ueda (16), 9. Akihiro Asai/Ken Seto (14)

Both FFF Racing Lamborghinis ran competitively during a day of testing at the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix venue, therefore the Roger Dubuis-supported team was in good shape entering the first of two qualifying sessions on Saturday (20 August) morning.

However, clear, unimpeded laps were at a premium in Q1 and neither the #55 entry of Liberati and Amici nor the #15 of Jeroen Mul and Richard Antinucci were able to realise their full potential, qualifying out of position in seventh and tenth respectively and notably behind FFF Racing’s chief title rivals, Davide Rizzo and Anthony Liu Xu.

Incredibly, GT Asia debutants Mul and Antinucci charged up the leaderboard to threaten for a podium finish prior to the compulsory pit stops, only to suffer a race-ending tyre delamination as a consequence of a punt from the Craft-Bamboo Porsche of Richard Lyons.

FFF Racing regulars Liberati and Amici also made headway, but their charge was stymied by a heavy success penalty and the #55 Lamborghini Huracan could be found in the lower reaches of the field after the stops at around mid-distance.

It was up to Amici to recover lost ground and a big push saw the super-quick Italian climb from eighth to fifth during the final three laps alone in what was a superb damage limitation exercise.

Points for a top five finish were gratefully received; Liberati and Amici were now tied for the championship lead with race winners Rizzo and Liu, therefore the outcome of Sunday’s (21 August) contest would be critical in determining who held the initiative ahead of the highly anticipated season finale.

FFF Racing made its intentions clear in Q2, as Mul shook the established runners by grabbing pole position and Amici qualified second ahead of the title-rivalling Ferrari 458 Italia, which loomed as an immediate threat in third.

The scene was set. Solid starts meant Mul led Amici for the first two laps, but positions were eventually traded and the #55 Lamborghini was released into clean air, which Amici used to carve out a ten-second lead before the pit stop window.

Another success penalty and a slight delay in the pits were inconvenient and Liberati had it all to do in the latter half of the race to ensure he and Amici retained the lead in the overall Drivers’ Championship and the Drivers’ Pro Cup.

However, the Lamborghini factory driver showed his class by battling to second position, driving away from title foes Rizzo and Liu who fell back to tenth, to secure a nine-point lead entering the final round of the 2016 GT Asia Series at the Zhejiang Circuit in China.

FFF Racing Team Owner, Sean Fu Songyang, said: “This was a fantastic team effort and a great success for the entire FFF Racing programme. Running two cars, putting the second car on pole for race two and taking away a podium result at such a critical point of the season is fantastic. Sixth place for the #15 Lamborghini of Jeroen (Mul) and Richard (Antinucci) completes an impressive team display.”

Qualifying

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Richard Lyons was out first in an attempt to snatch the front row of the grid for the #88 Inteursh Porsche. He set a quick time of 2:06.157, which was only 0.2s off P1. Even with his fast lap, Lyons secured P6 for race one, showing just how close this season’s competitors really are.

Frank Yu was tasked with securing race two’s starting position and he remained on the tyres that Lyon’s had used in the previous session, deciding to save a fresh set for the coming race. Frank set a time of 2:10.181, which would see him start P14 for Sunday’s race.

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Darryl O’Young struggled with a new setup in qualifying, losing pace compared with the practice sessions on Friday. He recorded a flying lap of 2:08.523 that gave him a starting position of P15 for race one and a big challenge to conquer later that day.

In Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi’s first ever qualifying session in Shanghai he managed to take the ninth fastest time, which was a solid effort given his lack of experience at the Chinese circuit. His top ten starting positon gave him a chance to make up places in the race and score some possible points for the #91’s campaign.

Race One

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Richard Lyons got off to a good start from P6, making a smooth manoeuvre around the outside to slot into P5. Over the coming laps, Lyons was able to retain his position and keep pace with the front runners. He managed to stay ahead until lap eight, when the #88 Porsche began to drop off the pace. Lyons’ stint did not improve when he made contact with the #15 Lamborghini before heading into the pits to switch over to Frank Yu. Frank re-joined the race in P10 but was called back into the pits to complete a drive through penalty for Lyons’ earlier contact. This dropped the Interush Porsche down to P14 but Frank was undeterred; he used the rest of the race to further learn the car and the circuit, while gathering as much data as possible for Sunday’s race.

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Darryl O’Young started the #91 VLT Porsche from P15 on the grid, but was able to make a strong start and take P14 within the first few laps. The Hong Kong driver’s pace steadily increased, setting his best lap time of the race as he got settled into his stint. O’Young fought hard and managed to hand the car over to his teammate Bhirombhakdi, who left the pits in P11 and manged to keep pace with the other bronze drivers. Unfortunately, an electrical problem developed and began to cause a misfire, forcing the #91 VLT Porsche to lose power and force an early retirement just before the end of the race.

Quotes

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Richard Lyons, Driver #88

“I had a fairly good start in race one, came from P6 to P5 and the car felt good for the first few laps but unfortunately we just didn’t have the pace. We then had some contact, which led to some other problems and a drive through penalty, which was perhaps a little unfair. In any case, we didn’t get the result we were hoping for.”

Frank Yu, Driver #88

“Richard passed the car onto me during the driver change and after I got in the car I was told to serve a drive through penalty for Richard Lyons’ contact with the Lamborghini earlier in the race. When I came out I was dead last, so I drove my own race and tried to gather as much data and experience as possible.”

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Darryl O’Young, Driver #91

“We decided to sacrifice this race due to our bad start position and save our tyres for race two, so we didn’t have good tyres under us. I’d say that the race started off ok, we were able to overtake a couple of cars, but towards the end of the race there was an electrical issue with the car, which caused a misfire. It was a shame to have to retire the car as we could have scored some points, so it was a disappointing end.”

Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi, Driver #91

“I took over from Darryl and we had some pretty good pace, after six or seven laps we started to develop some engine issues. Several cars began to pass us and unfortunately we had to retire the car to prevent any further engine damage.”

Race Two

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

It was Frank’s turn to get the #88 Interush Porsche underway for race two and after a clean start he began to advance up the field. By the second lap, Frank had taken two places and was up into P12. With his teammate in the #91 VLT right behind in P13 and challenging for position, an unfortunate racing incident eventuated at turn one. The pair of drivers touched, and with the subsequent rubbing on both vehicles, each driver spun around, dropping them back down the field and undoing their good work from the race start. Frank’s Porsche was unable to be restarted quickly, which lost him a significant amount of time and track positions. After Frank got back up to speed, he was no longer able to compete for position but with pure grit he pushed the #88 Porsche to its limit and put in his best lap times of the weekend before handing over to his teammate. Lyons put in a stellar performance as usual and worked to close the gap as much as possible, but there was not enough time to catch the rest of the pack. After gaining more vital data about the Porsche, Lyons crossed the line to end a tough weekend in Shanghai but one in which valuable setup information was gained from each session.

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi took the reins of the #91 VLT Porsche for the start of race two and gave chase to those ahead, hoping to carve his way up the field. On lap two though, contact between himself and Frank caused him to spin. Bhirombhakdi got straight back on the pace and continued his fight from P15. By the time the pit window opened, the young GT3 driver had made up another position and handed over to O’Young in P14. The 2015 drivers’ champion began his push to the finish and throughout his stint was able to take another two positions and complete the hour long race in P12. While it wasn’t the result the #91 pair hoped for, the team continues to move in the right direction with the collection of data at each track they visit. Craft-Bamboo will be looking ahead to the next round in Zhejiang to finish the season on a high note.

Quotes

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Frank Yu, Driver #88

“Started off with a new set of tyres and had a really good start and was able to gain a couple of good positions. I caught up to my teammate, and we had a little bit of rubbing and both spun at turn one. It was really difficult for the car to start, I wasted a lot of time trying to get the car started and then I was just running my own race. One positive was that I was able to produce my best lap times of the weekend before handing over to Richard.”

Richard Lyons, Driver #88

“It was very frustrating, we didn’t have a good starting position and Frank tried his best but he had a little contact, which set us back. He then had a little problem with his engine while trying to restart it, and then we were kind of out of it. On a positive though, we found good setup and car speed, so perhaps we can bring this forward to the final rounds in Zhejiang.”

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Darryl O’Young, Driver #91

“Race two was very positive; of course I’d say there is nothing you can do when Toy had an incident and a spin. It was unfortunate, but the positive side was that the car was quite quick and we made a lot of progress on the setup. I had the best car under me for the weekend. We are always continually looking forward to the future, we were able to have some good battles with the other cars and we are heading in the right direction.”

Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi, Driver #91

“Started race two but didn’t have the best start, I got blocked in but managed to make up some positions and then we ran into a racing incident with another car, which dropped us out of the running. I was able to make up some positions before handing over the car to Darryl.”

Richard Coleman, CEO of Craft-Bamboo Racing

“A very tough weekend for us that was hampered by bad luck and lack of pace, but we still managed to take away some positives. As reigning champions of this series we know that we are better than the results that we are currently achieving. We are in this for the long haul but we still have a lot of work to do regarding our pace and setup of both Porsches.”

The #88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R’s pursuit of the 2016 GT Asia Series title would not have been possible without Interush and W66.com

The #91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R’s pursuit of the 2016 GT Asia Series title would not have been possible without VLT, Singha Estate, TMB and AIS.

It also would not have been possible without our Team Partners: Gravity, POAD, Orangebus, Dixcel, freem and Tunewear

In fact all seven marques are separated by just eight tenths of a second around the 5.451-kilometre Formula One venue, and whilst Audi can perhaps claim credit for topping all three sessions, their margin of advantage is too slight to lay down any predictions.

Interestingly it was two-time 2016 race winner Marchy Lee who topped the opening session, punching out an impressive 2:05.796 in the opening laps of the first session, just eight one thousandths faster than his Phoenix Racing Asia team-mate Alex Yoong, the two Audi veterans laying down the gauntlet for their rivals, who were ultimately unable to match them.

That experience – especially of the Shanghai circuit – was the feature of day one, the local stars and experienced GT Asia Series crews the ones who emerged on top at the conclusion of the three 60-minute sessions. In the end, despite some spirited driving and some qualifying simulations late in the day, Lee’s opening session best was the fastest of the day, Yoong retaining P2 overall, whilst their Nurburgring 24-Hour team-mate Franky Cheng in the Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS, was fastest in sessions two and three to finish fourth fastest for the day.

Another local crew too was keeping the new teams honest, Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo in the BBT Ferrari showing just how quick they can be at their home circuit, putting in some blistering times to really push the Audis, however a technical issue in the final session saw them unable to record a time, but as former winners and pole-sitters, they still provide one of the greatest threats this weekend.

Points-leaders Lamborghini too were fast, but it was the established pairing of Andrea Amici and Edoardo Liberati who were quickest despite the experience of the team’s second [#15] entry of Richard Antinucci and Jeroen Mul, they – like the highly-rated AMG factory drivers – were finding out first-hand just how quick the GT Asia Series regulars can be.

Fresh from back-to-back podiums in the USA last weekend, 2016 race winner Adderly Fong was quick too during the opening session, the Hong Kong Bentley driver looking for more in session two, but he ultimately paid the price after a spin and heavy contact with the barriers in the final corner. That contact forced the second red flag of the session (the first for debris) whilst safety crews recovered the stricken Bentley which had suffered significant damage to the right front corner.

Fong was understandably disappointed, with data supporting the fact that apart from running slightly wide on the exit, he’d done little wrong. Perhaps the vagaries of international flight though may have impacted his usually impressive reaction time.

With Fong and Kim back in the garage for the following session, the Bentley charge was left in the capable hands of two-time 2016 winners Keita Sawa and Jonathan Venter, the popular Japanese-Australian pairing sixth fastest in session two, immediately ahead of the first of the AMG GT3 pairings of Nico Bastian and Matt Solomon.

Making their maiden appearance in GT Asia, and with typical German precision (the local AAI team are being supported technically from Germany), the two pristine white AMGs spent their three sessions establishing a strong baseline setup from which to push during qualifying, whilst also ensuring that new recruit Zhang Wenhe could take as much time behind the wheel under the guidance of team-mate Maro Engel.

In the end the team pronounced themselves happy with their pace, whilst some suggested the successful international marque were ‘foxing’ ahead of qualifying, a not uncommon sight in world motorsport, however qualifying – the most important session of the weekend – usually gives a better indication of where the performance really lies.

As the fastest driver in the two prior visits to Shanghai for the GT Asia Series, Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Richard Lyons was also in the mix, however the reigning driver’s champions were still looking to extract more performance from their Porsche GT3 Rs, so too the [now] two-car GruppeM operation who added 2014 podium-placegetters Zhang Dasheng and Li Chao to their driver roster.

So what could we take from official practice.. Ultimately the heat affected the performance of some cars during the middle of the day, whilst the morning session saw the fastest lap times of the day, a time of day when qualifying will take place, and with what teams uncovered during their extended three hour sessions, you could perhaps expect a low 2:04-minute lap time to take the top spot.

As for the racing, practice proved what everyone expected – that the competition will be tight – with less than a second covering ten cars over a two-minute lap, this weekend could belong to anyone, but keep an eye on the established teams to dominate the podium, although don’t be too surprised if the international stars make an impression, that’s certainly their intent..!

Teams now prepare for qualifying at 9:40am (CST time) on Saturday morning with two 15-minute sessions separated by a ten minute break, ahead of the opening round in China at 4:05pm, in the peak of the heat of the day where temperatures are expected to hit 37 degrees with some chance of an afternoon storm. Round ten (race two at Shanghai) will be held at 2:00 on Sunday afternoon, with increasing chances that thunderstorms will hit during the day.

This season Fox Sports Asia and Star Sports in China will broadcast every event of GT Asia Series live (race two in full, with highlights of the opening race), whilst the series itself will also live-stream every round with commentators Jonathan Green – the voice of GT Asia – joined by Steve Martin to call both live television and live streaming.

Details of the streams and the broadcast times will be available on the GT Asia Series website – www.gtasiaseries.com – and through social media; www.facebook.com/GTAsiaSeries will also post news, video clips, images and updates, and you can also get involved in the conversation on www.twitter.com/GTAsiaSeries

Shanghai International Circuit, China (19 August, 2016)
Official Practice#1 (60-minutes)
1. 5. Lee/Thong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:05.796
2. 6. Yoong/Au (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:05.804
3. 37. Rizzo/Liu (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 2:05.839
4. 7. Fong/Kim (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:06.267
5. 55. Liberati/Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:06.329
6. 13. Cheng/Sun (Absolute Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:06.612
7. 66. Bastian/Solomon (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.948
8. 68. Engel/Zhang (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.964
9. 12. Bhirombhakdi/Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 2:07.086
10. 8. Venter/Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:06.307
11. 91. O’Young/Bhirombakdi (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:07.342
12. 9. Tappy/Inthraphuvasak (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:07.707
13. 88. Lyons/ Yu (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:07.750
14. 15. Antinucci/Mul (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:08.065
15. 96. Zhang/Li (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:08.614
16. 98. Sugden/Lester (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:08.815
17. 90. Lin/Chen (Team FIST with AAI Lamborghini Super Trofeo) – 2:13.637

Official Practice#2 (60-minutes)
1. 13. Cheng/Sun (Absolute Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:06.026
2. 37. Rizzo/Liu (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 2:06.192
3. 88. Lyons/ Yu (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:06.381
4. 5. Lee/Thong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:06.441
5. 66. Bastian/Solomon (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.551
6. 8. Venter/Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:06.767
7. 68. Engel/Zhang (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.928
8. 91. O’Young/Bhirombakdi (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:07.272
9. 55. Liberati/Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:07.512
10. 12. Bhirombhakdi/Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 2:07.532
11. 98. Sugden/Lester (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:07.981
12. 15. Antinucci/Mul (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:08.062
13. 9. Tappy/Inthraphuvasak (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:08.123
14. 6. Yoong/Au (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:08.389
15. 96. Zhang/Li (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:09.665
16. 7. Fong/Kim (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:10.626
17. 90. Lin/Chen (Team FIST with AAI Lamborghini Super Trofeo) – 2:16.737

Official Practice#3 (60-minutes)
1. 13. Cheng/Sun (Absolute Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:05.971
2. 6. Yoong/Au (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:06.110
3. 9. Tappy/Inthraphuvasak (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:06.184
4. 5. Lee/Thong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:06.245
5. 66. Bastian/Solomon (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.297
6. 88. Lyons/ Yu (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:06.409
7. 8. Venter/Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:06.509
8. 68. Engel/Zhang (Mercedes-AMG GT3) – 2:06.674
9. 55. Liberati/Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:06.801
10. 15. Antinucci/Mul (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:07.162
11. 12. Bhirombhakdi/Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 2:07.477
12. 98. Sugden/Lester (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:07.550
13. 96. Zhang/Li (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:08.166
14. 91. O’Young/Bhirombakdi (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:08.604
15. 90. Lin/Chen (Team FIST with AAI Lamborghini Super Trofeo) – 2:15.024
NTR. 7. Fong/Kim (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3)
NTR. 37. Rizzo/Liu (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3)

Just days ago Mercedes-AMG announced they would make an all-out assault on the Shanghai round, with the addition of two new Mercedes-AMG GT3s, whilst points leaders FFF Racing Team by ACM had an announcement of their own, adding a second Huracan GT3 for Lamborghini Squadra Corse drivers Jeroen Mul and Richard Antinucci

They aren’t the only ones either, 2014 podium place-getters Zhang Dasheng and Li Chao will make a welcome return, joining Tim Sugden and Jono Lester in the GruppeM Racing team in a second Porsche GT3 R, whilst Lin Yu and Jun San Chen will share a Lamborghini Super Trofeo in the GTM category, run under the same AAI banner as the two Merecedes-AMG GT3s.

The new teams will be looking to ‘shake things up’ because they’re not in championship contention, but don’t discount the title contenders, any and all points will contribute to the overall standings as they head towards the final event of the season, so they’re not going to just lay down and let the new teams dictate, it will be all out war!

Leading the charge for the established teams is FFF Racing duo Edoardo Liberati and Andrea Amici, the two Lamborghini junior drivers took their maiden win of the season last time out in Fuji to take the championship lead by just nine points from the BBT Ferrari pairing of Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo – but now the Lamborghini drivers are in Anthony Liu’s back yard!

Two years ago – during their maiden season in GT Asia – Liu and Rizzo set pole position for both legs of the first ever Shanghai event for the successful Asian championship, out-qualifying all challengers to go on and win the opening race. During the second race of 2014, they came up against the debut of the mighty Bentley Continental GT3 – which since then has been one of the most successful marques in the Series – and lost out after contact battling into the final turn. That contact effectively cost them the championship, Liu going on to finish second in the driver’s championship, just five points behind Clearwater Racing’s Mok Weng Sun.

12-months ago the BBT duo were back in action at Shanghai, finishing second in race two, so they know the circuit and are looking to get back into the championship fight, although they may have to contend with the two Lamborghinis of another local – FFF team-boss Sean Fu – in order to do so.

The 2016 GT Asia Series has been such a tight affair this season, that any slip by the leaders could result in a vastly different point-score on Sunday evening. Team Bentley Absolute have won three of the eight races so far in season 2016, and they’ll be hoping that the Lamborghini and Ferrari battle will allow them to move through to claim the top spot, especially as Adderly Fong and Andrew Kim sit just 10-points back from Liu and Rizzo in the championship – but the Bentley duo have their own battle to contest.

Former Series regular Marchy Lee arrived at the opening round in South Korea with one of the most impressive operations anywhere in the world of GT3 racing, after agreeing terms with German powerhouse Phoenix Racing to form Phoenix Racing Asia, and in just their maiden season, Lee and team-mate Shaun Thong have gone on to claim two wins (Thailand and Okayama) to share third place in the points with Fong and Kim.

Both teams are expected to challenge at the front of the field, and Fong especially is race-ready, the Hong Kong-based driver having come off back-to-back podium finishes at Utah in the USA last weekend in his Bentley Continental GT3, so he is ready for a fight..

So too Keita Sawa and Jonathan Venter, the Bentley duo dominated the opening round of the season with back-to-back wins in South Korea, but since that point have suffered a string of DNFs which have dropped them well back in the points, their only chance to get back into the title fight comes by battling for the top points and they both well understand that. Last time out in Fuji they finished second to the Lamborghini so are mounting a recovery and have every chance of claiming the top step, especially considering Sawa is a former race winner at Shanghai (2014).

Three years ago AMG made a one-off appearance in that year’s GT Asia Series, campaigning two SLS AMG GT3s at Zhuhai, one of which was driven by three-time Formula One world champion Mika Hakkinen and a rising young teenage star from Hong Kong, Matt Solomon..

It’s in the history books now, but the duo claimed the win on their maiden attempt after a desperate last lap pass for the lead by then 17-year old Solomon who returns to the fold this weekend as one of four drivers for the AAI-supported AMG Customer Racing team.

Joining Solomon in the #66 car will be another rising young star, Germany’s Nico Bastian who has done a lot of miles in the new AMG GT3, whilst Solomon’s 2013 mentor Hakkinen will also make an appearance at Shanghai, although due to his elite driver ranking, and Solomon’s subsequent leap up the rankings in recent years, he’s unable to drive. Always popular with the Chinese fans, Hakkinen will be at Shanghai for AMG, and the organisers have tasked the Finn with waving the chequered flag for the two GT Asia Series races.

As for the second car, it too will have an impressive lineup with the new ‘King of Macau’ Maro Engel (2014-2015 winner on the Guia Circuit) joining emerging Chinese star Zhang Wenhe in the #68 entry. Engel is expected to push the new car to the limit, the former DTM star and factory AMG favourite is widely regarded as one of the best GT3 drivers in the world, whilst Solomon has already taken the new car to victory in Australia earlier in the year.

You could be forgiven for thinking these teams would provide more than enough ingredients for what will be the biggest and best race of the season, but that’s without taking into consideration the most experienced team in GT Asia – Craft-Bamboo Racing.. The 2015 driver’s champions made a marque change last year from Aston Martin to Porsche, and since the opening round have been on an aggressive development curve, and that curve delivered great results at Fuji with team-leader Frank Yu and experienced Asian GT3 star Richard Lyons claiming a pair of podium finishes.

12-months ago Shanghai was all about Craft-Bamboo with Series champion Darryl O’Young and English team-mate Daniel Lloyd claiming victory in both 50-minute races, whilst Lyons holds an unbeaten record at Shanghai for the category as the outright lap record holder for both qualifying (1:46.985) and the race (1:47.107). With the new Porsche GT3 R now sorted, you couldn’t discount Craft-Bamboo continuing that winning streak this weekend.

As for the second of the teams campaigning the new Type 991 Porsche GT3 R – GruppeM Racing, they’ve already been on the 2016 Series podium with Englishman Tim Sudgen and rapid New Zealander Jono Lester. Lester stood down at Okayama for team-leader Philip Ma, but he’s back in for this weekend and desperate to prove he is still one of the best GT3 drivers in the Pan-Asian region by taking the new team to another podium, and if the stars align, the first win of the year for Porsche could fall their way..

Throw in a couple more stars – former F1 driver Alex Yoong, and Chinese motorsport hero Franky Cheng – both in identical Audi R8 LMS GT3s, and opening race Fuji winners Carlo Van Dam and Piti Bhirombhakdi in their Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 and you have the perfect recipe for an event which will keep you captivated across both 60-minute races..!

WHO TO WATCH OUT FOR;
Where do we start.. This year it has been a challenge to predict who will make a GT Asia podium, but the addition of some seriously talented drivers, some impressive new equipment and an A-list of current drivers who are right in the title battle suggests it would be easier to predict the lottery numbers..!

If this season has shown anything, it’s that any number of the teams entered have a chance to claim a podium finish, and with the title on the line ahead of the final round, this weekend could provide plenty of fireworks.. if you need a prediction you’re not going to get it, but if you need some sage advice.. don’t miss this one, it’s going to be memorable!

HOW TO FOLLOW SHANGHAI;
This season Fox Sports Asia and Star Sports in China will also broadcast every event of the GT Asia Series live (race two in full, with highlights from the opening race), whilst the series itself will also live-stream every round with experienced commentators Jonathan Green – the voice of GT Asia – joined by Steve Martin to call both live television and live streaming action as it unfolds.

Details of the streams and the broadcast times will be available on the GT Asia Series website – www.gtasiaseries.com – and through social media; www.facebook.com/GTAsiaSeries will also post news, video clips, images and updates, and you can also get involved in the conversation on www.twitter.com/GTAsiaSeries

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SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT;
Jiading, Shanghai, China
Track length: 5.451-kilometres
Corners: 16
Rotation: clockwise
Designer/Circuit first opened: Hermann Tilke, 2004
GT3 Lap record: 1:47.107 – Race (Richard Lyons, 2015), 1:46.985  – Qualifying (Richard Lyons, 2015)
Support classes: TCR Asia Series, Asian Formula Renault, Clio Cup China
Number of times GT Asia Series has competed at Sepang previously: 2 (2014/2015)

GT ASIA AND SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT
2016 will see the third visit by the GT Asia Series to the Chinese Formula One venue. During the Series’ first visit, local stars Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo claimed pole position for both races and the first ever victory at the 5.5-kilometre venue. For the second race the local Ferrari stars were in the mix again, but contact with the debuting Absolute Racing Bentley ended their run at the front, allowing Clearwater Racing’s Mok Weng Sun and Keita Sawa to claim a victory which would all but seal Mok’s third championship crown.

Last year Liu and Rizzo claimed second in race two at Shanghai, but again they were right in the mix, but it was Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Darryl O’Young and Daniel Lloyd who claimed back-to-back wins.. the interesting point being that the Shanghai winners on Sunday in both 2014 and last year have both gone on to claim the championship crown.. an ominous sign perhaps!!

There is one difference in 2016 however, for the first time the Series will use the full 5.453-kilometre Grand Prix circuit unlike the shorter version (which eliminates turns 5 and 6) used in 2014 and 2015

HOW THINGS PLAYED OUT LAST YEAR AT SHANGHAI..
2015 GT Asia Series – Rnd#8 (50-minutes – 24-laps) – 26 September
Pole position: Richard Lyons (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3) – 1:46.985
1. Darryl O’Young/Daniel Lloyd (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3)
2. Carlo Van Dam/Piti Bhirombhakdi (TP12 Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) +1.751
3. Keita Sawa/Adderly Fong (Absolute Team Bentley Continental GT3) +5.067

2015 GT Asia Series – Rnd#9 (50-minutes – 26-laps) – 27 September
Pole position: Daniel Lloyd (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3) – 1:47.292
1. Daniel Lloyd/Darryl O’Young (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3)
2. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (BBT Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) +9.310
3. Adderly Fong/Keita Sawa (Absolute Team Bentley Continental GT3) +10.946

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Rnd#9/#10 – 2016 GT Asia Series
Shanghai International Circuit, China
Schedule (CST – GMT +8)

Friday, 19 August
09:00 – Practice #1 (60-minutes)
12:40 – Practice #2 (60-minutes)
15:10 – Practice #3 (60-minutes)

Saturday,20 August
09:40 – Qualifying #1 (15-minutes)
10:05 – Qualifying #2 (15-minutes)
16:05 – Race#1 (60-minutes)

Sunday, 21 August
14:00 – Race#2 (60-minutes)

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GT3 Championship points (after eight rounds of 12)
1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (94-points), 3. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (85), 5. Marchy Lee/Shaun Thong, Adderly Fong/Andrew Kim (75), 9. Piti Bhirombhakdi/Carlo Van Dam (71), 11. Jonathan Venter (68), 12. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (66), 13. Keita Sawa (61), 14. Alex Yoong/Alex Au (58), 16. Duncan Tappy (51), 17. Frank Yu/Richard Lyons (50), 19. Tim Sugden (46), 20. Darryl O’Young/Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (41), 22. Mok Weng Sun (28), 23. Jono Lester (22), 24. George Miedecke (18), 25. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 26. George Richardson (14), 27. Ashley Walsh, Franky Cheng/JingZu Sun, Richard Wee (13), 31. Philip Ma (10), 32. Andrew Palmer (8), 33. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 35. Nathan Morcom (5)

Pro-Am Cup points (after eight rounds of 12)
1. Anthony Liu (96-points), 2. Shaun Thong (95), 3. Piti Bhirombhakdi (89), 4. Andrew Kim (85), 5. Alex Au, Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (76), 7. Frank Yu (63), 8. Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (58), 9. Philip Ma (25), 10. Mok Weng Sun (17), 11. JingZu Sun (16)

Pro Cup points (after eight rounds of 12)
1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (94-points), 3. Davide Rizzo (85), 4. Adderly Fong, Marchy Lee (75), 6. Carlo Van Dam (71), 7. Jonathan Venter (68), 8. Keita Sawa (61), 9. Alex Yoong (58), 10. Tim Sugden (52), 11. Duncan Tappy (51), 12. Richard Lyons (50), 13. Darryl O’Young (42), 14. Jono Lester (22), 15. George Miedecke (17), 16. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 17. George Richardson (14), 18. Ash Walsh, Franky Cheng (13), 20. Andrew Palmer (8), 21. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 23. Nathan Morcom (4)

GT Cup points (after eight rounds of 12)
1. Kantasak Kusiri/Bhurit Bhirombhakdi (102-points), 3. Voravud Bhirombhakdi/Tin Sritra (34), 5. Aekrat Discharoen, Toshihito Funai/Masayuki Ueda (32), 8. Akihiro Asai/Ken Seto (28), 10. Suttiluck Buncharoen, (16)

After a brilliant pole position in Japan, Richard Lyons and Frank Yu are heading into the Shanghai rounds with increased confidence and are looking to give the team their first victory of the 2016 GT Asia Season.  Both drivers have a good deal of experience at the Chinese track, with Yu taking second place in race one back in 2014, while Lyons scored a pole position for race one in 2015 with a flawless flying lap. Lyons will be looking to repeat his performance here in China to give the #88 Porsche its best shot at victory. Yu and Lyons were running strong in P1 last year when they were hit by another competitor, ultimately ruining their chances of taking the win. They are determined to return to Shanghai in 2016 with a clean slate and put the #88 Interush Porsche on the top step of the podium.

After Darryl O’Young and Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi took their season best fourth place finish in Japan, the #91 VLT Porsche pair is looking to continue building on that momentum in Shanghai. O’Young and Bhirombhakdi have repeatedly shown progress with each passing round and are looking to take their performance to the next level this weekend in Shanghai. O’Young scored a double win at the circuit last year and will be putting his experience to good use in the fight for more top results alongside his teammate, Bhirombhakdi. The young Thai has been making great strides with each round and he is hoping to continue fighting with pure grit and determination to take his first ever GT Asia Series podium.

To watch the Shanghai round of the GT Asia Series, you can stream both races live at www.gtasiaseries.com

The #88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R’s pursuit of the 2016 GT Asia Series title would not have been possible without Interush and W66.com.

The #91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R’s pursuit of the 2016 GT Asia Series title would not have been possible without VLT, Singha Estate, TMB and AIS.

It also would not have been possible without our Team Partners: Gravity, POAD, Orangebus, Dixcel, freem and Tunewear.

Timetable, Shanghai International Circuit, GMT +8

Friday, 19th August 2016 (GMT +8)

GT Asia Series Official Practice 1: 09:00 – 10:00
GT Asia Series Official Practice 2: 12:40 – 13:40
GT Asia Series Official Practice 3: 15:10 – 16:10

Saturday, 20th August 2016 (GMT +8)

GT Asia Series Qualifying Session 1: 09:40 – 09:55
GT Asia Series Qualifying Session 2: 10:05 – 10:20
GT Asia Series Race 1 (60 minutes) Rolling Start: 16:05 – 17:05

Sunday, 21st August 2016 (GMT +8)

GT Asia Series Race 2 (60 minutes) Rolling Start: 14:00 – 15:00

Quotes

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Frank Yu, Driver

“We found a lot in the car from Fuji and we are definitely heading in the right direction now. The Shanghai circuit is not that different from Fuji, so hopefully we will be able to get similar results.”

Richard Lyons, Driver

“After a very successful round seven and eight it’s hard not to go into Shanghai with high hopes. Each time that I have raced there I’ve been competitive and able to secure front row starts, fastest laps and podiums. We seem to have made a step forward with pace so I expect the #88 Interush Porsche to be at the feisty end of the grid come race day.”

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Darryl O’Young, Driver

“We’ve been building momentum every weekend and in the last race we got a really strong result in Japan. We are looking forward to Shanghai, where I feel we can get on the podium. With all the progress Toy and I have made, I truly believe we have a good shot at getting up there and we just need some luck to fall our way.   As we saw in Fuji, qualifying will be critical so I’m aiming to be in the front two rows and capitalize on a strong start.”

Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi, Driver

“Shanghai is one of the circuits that I am most looking forward to this season, as it is a demanding and a world renowned F1 circuit of the modern era. I am looking forward to continuing the positive momentum our team has gained from the previous race weekend in Fuji, where both cars had their best performance to date. I believe that after the back to back races in Japan, the long three week break has helped us regroup and prepare for the races in Shanghai. I am delighted to be racing there, and hope I can help give Craft-Bamboo some more great results.”

Richard Coleman, CEO of Craft-Bamboo Racing

“We have worked hard throughout the season to increase our performance and found that we made some good steps forward in Japan. Over the summer break we have continued to push our development and I hope that we can make similar strides this weekend. We have a good track record at Shanghai but we will have to work incredibly hard to get the two Porsches up to speed as quickly as possible.”

Citing increased competition, the success of the live global television programming and the depth of driving talent coming from all quarters of the world, Motorsport Asia Limited CEO David Sonenscher explained that plans are well underway to take the Series to another level in 2017.

“There’s no question that the GT Asia Series has come of age in season 2016,” Sonenscher admitted. “A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to build the championship this year, and we’ll continue that development as the season progresses heading into next season. Since the start of this year, we’ve fielded quite a number of enquiries from teams – both existing and new – about the details of the 2017 calendar, so we’re unveiling those dates in the coming weeks to allow them to start planning well in advance for the new season.”

It’s a move that has been universally welcomed by teams and competitors with acknowledgment from some of the region’s most successful teams that they are committed to GT Asia into 2017 and beyond.

“So far the 2016 season has seen some outstanding racing – the best we’ve ever seen in the GT Asia Series,” Ingo Matter, Team Principal Absolute Racing said. “It’s great that planning has begun for the 2017 season, and all I’ve heard is that next year will be a very positive step forward for the category.

“From our perspective we’re not only going to continue with the program we already have, but we’re also looking at increasing our involvement. GT Asia is a great championship, the events and venues are fantastic and the atmosphere around the Series – certainly this year – is great, especially the new involvement with media and FOX Sports Live. One of our goals for next year is to help increase the field sizes, and from what I hear that message has been heard by a number of teams in the region who are looking to join us in 2017, and for one, I welcome the competition.”

Even before they’d claimed their maiden win in the 2016 Series, FFF Racing Team by ACM’s Team manager Alf Boarer was already in the planning stages for the 2017 season, with discussions already underway with potential drivers to join the Lamborghini Huracan operation next year.

“It’s our intention to run a two car team next year – two Lamborghinis – and we want to come back again and enjoy it. The racing in GT Asia is now at the same level as the leading championships in the rest of the world. We’re committed to GT Asia 100% no question, we want to do it and we’re really looking forward to it.”

“I think the media program and the way the Series has been developed this year for GT Asia has been fantastic, and I see that the Series is looking to expand that message again for 2017 to attract more competitors and get the message out to a wider audience,” Marchy Lee, Team Principal (and driver) of Phoenix Racing Asia admitted. “From Phoenix Racing Asia’s perspective, we want competition, and we’ve certainly had that in the GT Asia Series this year, and that ongoing challenge will see us commit to the future of GT Asia going forward.”

Meanwhile 2015 GT Asia Series champions Craft-Bamboo Racing have also reaffirmed their position within the category, CEO Richard Coleman quick to confirm their intent.

“GT Asia is part of the lifeblood of Craft-Bamboo Racing, it is the premier Pan-Asian series and a platform that is very important to us for our partners. The improved live TV this season has been excellent and things have been on the up for some time.”

Alongside the established teams, some of those that have campaigned part-time programs in 2016 to get a feel for the popular Asian championship have also confirmed they are looking for a full-time entry in 2017.

“There’s no question that our Plan A is to come back into GT Asia in 2017 with a two-car operation and go after the championship,” Miedecke Stone Motorsport’s George Miedecke explained at the conclusion of their two-race programme recently in Japan.

“The competition is world class and the opportunities to compete on some of the best circuits in the world and be competitive against some of the best teams on the planet is a huge attraction and we’re certainly focused on being on the grid in 2017.”

Plan B Motorsport’s Bhurit Bhirombhakdi confirmed he too was looking to GT Asia in 2017, citing a desire to compete in the outright GT3 class after winning multiple races in GTC during 2016. “There’s no question the outright class is where I want to be,” the Thai star admitted. “We’ve had a great time in the Ferrari 458 Challenge car this year, but we want to run with the leaders, and to do that we need an outright car and certainly my aim is to be in GT Asia battling for the podium in 2017.”

Three-time champions Clearwater Racing too have echoed their commitment to the 2017 season, although there is no secret that the Ferrari team have their focus set on a global WEC program next year and may not compete in Asia at all, however plans are in the pipeline for a two car team in GT Asia should they proceed locally.

“It’s great that we’re already getting commitments from teams for 2017, that gives us a good indication that we’re heading in the right direction,” David Sonenscher agreed.

“Like any competitive endeavour though there’s always challenges, and we’ve certainly not been immune from that, but what we’ve established in Asia takes an immense amount of planning and experience in the market.

“My focus is the teams – our stakeholders – so our job is to continue to offer one of the best GT championships in the world and to keep looking for ways to improve the program, and I think what we have proposed for 2017 will more than achieve that.”

Recently Motorsport Asia Limited revealed the introduction of a new category for the 2017 GT Asia Series focused on amateur drivers – with two levels of competition and valuable prize money – whilst the new season will also see a restructure of the Silver-Silver driver classification to bring the competition closer together, allowing the true Pro-Am teams a stronger chance of Race and championship victory.

They also revealed that next season an iconic street race will be introduced to the already popular race programme to ‘step things up’ another level.

“We’re just finalising our 2017 calendar now – which we will reveal in the coming weeks – I think it will provide teams with a lot of incentive to compete next year at some of the best venues in Asia,” Sonenscher added.

The GT Asia Series is sanctioned by the FIA as an International Series and is clearly recognised as the Region’s leading GT Championship. It is solely managed and promoted by Motorsport Asia Ltd and is backed by Singha, Michelin, KW Automotive, Motul, Race Room, Panta, Tunewear and YOFC.

“After discussions across this season with our various stakeholders, we’ve elected to revise the Silver-Silver compensation times which we introduced this year,” Motorsport Asia CEO David Sonenscher explained.

Silver-Silver driver pairings first appeared in 2015 against the traditional Pro-Am style pairings and they proved to be the most competitive driver line-ups, claiming the top four positions in the 2015 championship.

“With that in mind, for 2016 we introduced a compensation time for the Silver-Silver pairings, and whilst that has been somewhat successful, the huge variation in the level of Silver classified drivers has not allowed us to arrive at as good a balance as we would have liked to bring the Platinum [or Gold] with Bronze combinations into consistent contention for race wins. Understanding that the Bronze drivers are the backbone of the championship, we’ve decided to introduce a more aggressive compensation structure for 2017,” Sonenscher added.

“Since 2015 we’ve been collating data from every entry in GT Asia, and from that data we have been able to simulate a variety of performance changes to develop a more level playing field amongst the various driver combinations.

“Therefore, for 2017 we have decided to introduce a two tier Silver-Silver driver grading to allow for the various spread of drivers who are categorised Silver – lesser experienced Silvers (Silver), and more experienced Silver drivers (Silver+). That determination will come from our team at Motorsport Asia and will be based on the experience and overall performance of drivers, then we will set the compensations accordingly.”

Motorsport Asia revealed that the more amateur Silver-Silver combinations should expect an additional compensation time added to their compulsory pit stops – just as they experienced in season 2016 – whilst the more experienced Silver-Silver combinations could expect that same time penalty, together with additional weight.

“At this stage the data is showing us that an amateur Silver-Silver partnership would incur an additional 25-seconds on top of the standard pit stop compensation time, whilst the more ‘Pro’ Silver-Silver partnership (Silver+) will incur 30-kilograms of ballast in their car’s minimum weight in addition to the 25-second penalty.

“Our aim – as always – is to provide a very competitive level playing field amongst all combinations of drivers and in so doing, give them the confidence of knowing that they are competing with a chance to fight for race wins and the overall Championship Title.”

The GT Asia Series is sanctioned by the FIA as an International Series and is clearly recognised as the Region’s leading GT Championship.

“Next season we will be introducing a new category that is focussed entirely on amateur drivers,” Motorsport Asia Limited CEO David Sonenscher confirmed.

The new category will be for Bronze ranked drivers only (based on current FIA grading systems), which will see two classes of competition – one for the more experienced amateurs, and one for those that truly fit the ‘Gentleman’ driver tag. Both will be competing for a cash prize pool as well as their own podiums at each stop on the calendar.

Already some of the leading marques in international motorsport have cars eligible for this new class, such as the McLaren 570S, Porsche Cayman Clubsport, Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M3, Chevrolet Camaro and KTM X-Bow amongst others.

“It’s an exciting time for GT racing, and certainly this year in Asia, interest has emerged from club racers and sportscar owners who want to take their passion another step further,” Sonenscher explained. “There’s also a growing group of drivers who just want to race on a weekend and enjoy themselves without having to spend the kind of budget required for GT3.

“It’s a market that is very important to the growth of the sport in Asia, and a market that we will work very hard to foster over the coming seasons.”

Alongside this new category, GT Asia will retain it’s very successful Pro-Am format for the GT3 category.

“We’re just finalising the 2017 calendar now – which will include a spectacular street race – and we expect to release that in the coming weeks.”

The GT Asia Series is sanctioned by the FIA as an International Series and is clearly recognised as the Region’s leading GT Championship.

Earlier in the day Craft-Bamboo Racing put their championship back on track with Richard Lyons – who had dominated both wet and dry practice sessions on Friday in the #88 Interush Porsche – claiming the top spot in qualifying. He led the opening stanza of the race, handing team-mate Frank Yu the lead at the compulsory stops, the multiple GT Asia Series race winner holding the advantage until a spin on oil left as a result of an unusual engine failure for the points leading BBT Ferrari earlier in the race.

That allowed 2015 Fuji winner Piti Bhirombhakdi to get around Yu and open up an impressive lead, a lead he continued to extend all the way to the chequered flag as Yu recovered to battle team-mate Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi and Andrea Amici in the FFF Lamborghini across the closing laps.

Ultimately the race ended with a drag race on the main straight with the V10-powered Huracan just millimetres clear of the #88 Porsche to claim second place, Yu hanging on for third for the team’s first podium of the year with the new Type 991 Porsche GT3-R.

For the BBT Ferrari team, they continue to lead the outright points, however their rivals have closed the gap significantly, the top four crews; Liu/Rizzo, Liberati/Amici, Fong/Kim and Lee/Thong now separated by just six points with five rounds remaining, whilst in the Pro-Am class, Anthony Liu’s DNF has allowed Phoenix Racing Asia’s Shaun Thong to take over the points lead.

In the GTC class the battle for victory was almost as dramatic as the outright lead, with points leaders Singha Plan-B Motorsport doing battle with local heroes Toshihito Funai and Masayuki Ueda, the Thai pairing eventually gaining the advantage over the closing stages for their third win of the year.

Whilst the BBT Ferrari team were faced with an almost impossible task having suffered a rare mechanical failure, they were given a championship life-line post-race after three-time GT Asia Series champions Clearwater Racing made a generous offer to their rivals, donating the engine from their #3 Ferrari 488 GT3. The Singapore-based team had always planned a limited schedule for season 2016 with their Le Mans 24-Hour commitment and were not expecting to complete the two Chinese rounds of the Series, so their offer brought their season to a close just one round early, but effectively saved the title aspirations of the BBT team.

Qualifying#1
Under threatening skies and with light misty rain falling, the GT Asia Series teams were faced with two challenging qualifying sessions, both of which were effectively wet.

That didn’t deter the teams, although it put Keita Sawa’s 2015 pole record of 1:40.966 out of reach. Initially it was the points leading BBT Ferrari who claimed the top spot, Davide Rizzo on top ahead of 2015 race winner Carlo Van Dam and the FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini of Edoardo Liberati.

Then it was the Porsches who started to make their presence felt, the fastest man in practice – Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Richard Lyons – jumped to the top mid-session with a 1:52.454, Phoenix Racing Asia’s Alex Yoong also making a big step forward to be fourth.

Like many of their rivals, Bentley Team Absolute had struggled to gain effective data during the constantly changing practice sessions, but each of the three cars had made cameos in the top five, however in Q1 it was Jonathan Venter who waved the flag for the British manufacturer, grabbing fifth, just ahead of the second Craft-Bamboo Porsche.

The Miedecke Stone Motorsport Aston Martin made a welcome appearance in the lead pack, George Miedecke enjoying a much more competitive run in the slippery conditions to claim seventh ahead of the third Porsche GT3-R of Tim Sugden.

The GTC points-leading Singha Plan-B Motorsport Ferrari 458 Challenge saw Kantasak Kusiri as the top qualifier more than a second clear of Team Rosso Scuderia’s Akihiro Asai and Team Naoryu Age Age Racing’s Toshihito Funai.

Qualifying#2
With just a 10-minute turnaround to Q2, teams had little time but to strap in their second drivers, adjust tyre pressures and send their cars back out again. Some, including round six winner Marchy Lee retained their wet weather Michelins from Q1 (the #5 Phoenix Racing Asia Audi still using their practice tyres), with just two sets of the control wet tyres available for each team. Some though, like the BBT Ferrari team, used fresh tyres for each session in an effort to gain an advantage, especially as there was just as much chance of one dry and one wet race, as there was of two wet races..

As in session one, it was the #37 BBT Ferrari team who were on top early, Anthony Liu setting a best of 1:53.894 before a late surge by Andrea Amici in the FFF Lamborghini saw the Ferrari relegated to P2, Amici lowering the mark to 1:53.864.

Third was Ashley Walsh in the Australian Aston Martin, the former V8 Supercar regular just two tenths off the pole time with local hero Keita Sawa fourth, mere hundredths slower.

2015 Fuji winner Piti Bhirombhakdi set a stunning pace to be fifth and just three tenths off pole, and four tenths up on Audi’s two-time 2016 race winner Marchy Lee.. The race was going to prove interesting, especially with intermittent rain predicted..

In the GTC class battle, the top spot went to Bhurit Bhirombhakdi, the points leader just four tenths clear of Team Naoryu Age Age Racing’s Masayuki Ueda and Team Ross Scuderia’s Ken Seto.

Race#1 (Round#7)
Off their first pole-position of the year, Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Richard Lyons got a brilliant start to lead the field into turn one, whilst behind him team-mate and reigning GT Asia Series champion Darryl O’Young made a blistering start to jump to second, giving Porsche the top two spots for the opening lap.

Behind them a slow starting Carlo Van Dam dropped back to fifth, but before the end of the lap he was third and in pursuit of O’Young. The Dutchman got through pretty quickly, but at that stage though Lyons had disappeared, extending his lead to six seconds before the compulsory pit stop [CPS].

The battles mid-pack in the slippery conditions were intense, and ultimately caught the Series most successful competitor on lap three – Clearwater Racing’s Mok Weng Sun.

The Ferrari driver quickly righted himself and set off after the pack, but just a handful of laps later, more drama at turn three for a Ferrari, this time points leader Davide Rizzo who suddenly slowed, trailed smoke then spun on the exit of the corner. Post-race the revelation was that the twin-turbo 3.9-litre Ferrari powerplant had endured a major malfunction dropping oil onto the rear tyres. Fortunately Rizzo adeptly backed the car off the circuit to prevent a Safety Car whilst his rivals [mostly] managed to avoid the now slipperier conditions at turn three.

Experience was as much a virtue in the conditions as car performance, and former F1 driver Alex Yoong showed just why he’s one of Asia’s best drivers, working his way through from a pre-race penalty that saw a pit-lane start, onto the rear of team-mate Shaun Thong and then through to pursue the lead pack, ultimately getting to sixth ahead of the CPS.

A slick turnaround by the Craft-Bamboo team saw Frank Yu emerge as the race leader, holding a six second advantage over Piti Bhirombhakdi in the Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458, the Thai driver charging out the gate and quickly onto the tail of Yu.

Sadly for the Craft Bamboo team, the #88 Porsche caught some oil on the way through turn three, forcing Yu into a spin, the multiple GT Asia Series race winner quickly recovering to carry on in second, but by then Piti was gone, and so too the race..

With team-mate Naiyanobh ‘Toy’ Bhirombhakdi running behind his team boss, Yu looked to have the position covered, but an impressive run by FFF Racing’s Andrea Amici soon had the Lamborghini looming large in their mirrors. In a straight line there was little separating the two marques, and with the two Porsches running protective lines into the slower speed corners, opportunities were few, which was all the incentive that fifth placed Vutthirkon Inthrapuvasak needed in the #9 Bentley, the Thai driver making it a four-way battle for second.

With two laps to go they were at times three-wide, but Amici was forced to take the fight all the way to the final lap, pulling alongside Yu on the run to the line to finish alongside the #88 Porsche, but marginally in front to claim second with Yu an impressive third.

Naiyanobh ‘Toy’ Bhirombhakdi put in the drive of his season so far to claim second, immediately behind his team mate, with compatriot Inthrapuvasak immediately behind for fifth.

Jonathon Venter and Keita Sawa were finally able to put their recent dramas behind them to claim valuable points in sixth, ahead of Phoenix Racing Asia’s Alex Yoong who despite starting from pit-lane, managed to work his way to the front before handing over to team-mate Alex Au. Their stablemates and two-time winners this season – Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong – were ninth, immediately behind their title rivals, Adderly Fong and Andrew Kim in the #7 Bentley.

For Thong, the team had ‘rolled the dice’ by using old tyres for their first race, knowing that their long CPS compensation time would keep them stationary in pit lane up to 26 seconds longer than their rivals, and with rain threatening for race two they elected to save their new wets for potential rain in race two. The result may not have been what the team were looking for, but something they expected, yet even with ninth there was a silver lining, the Hong Kong-based driver had taken over the lead of the Pro-Am Cup standings after the demise of Anthony Liu’s BBT Ferrari.

In the battle for GTC class honours, the win went to points leaders Bhurit Bhirombhakdi and Kantasak Kusiri in the Singha Plan-B Motorsport Ferrari after a titanic battle over the closing laps with the Team Naoryu Age Age Racing Ferrari of Toshihito Funai and Masayuki Ueda.

What the drivers had to say;

1. Carlo Van Dam (#12 Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
“We know that in the dry, Fuji is a really good track for us and we didn’t have any pit stop time penalty. Piti drove brilliantly, and despite the weather being so unpredictable this morning, I had a good feeling going into the race. I missed the light off the start and dropped back to fifth, quickly got back to third then took Darryl [O’Young] for second, then did everything I could knowing how fast the Porsches were, to not fall too far behind. Piti had told me this morning to just give him the car and he’d do the rest, so I wasn’t worried.”
 


1. Piti Bhirombhakdi (#12 Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
“There was a lot of oil on the circuit, so it was pretty slippery, but I tried to work out the best way to drive around that, even if it was a car length or two off line, and after that it was okay. I did not look at the lap times or ask for the times to the drivers behind me, I just focused on driving and concentrating on what I was doing.”

2. Edoardo Liberati (#55 FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3)
“The start was difficult because we’d made a mistake in Q1 so I started P9, but we know the car is good in the wet so it was our chance to show the potential of what we could really achieve. I struggled a little bit in the beginning because I didn’t want to take any risks, so worked my way through to P4 to hand the car over to Andrea who did a great job to bring the car home in second place.”

2. Andrea Amici (#55 FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3)
“It was a fantastic second stint, which came after a brilliant drive by Edo to get the car up to P4. It was a very strange stint, I pushed very hard from the start and had some great battles, especially with the two Porsches over the closing laps. I have to say thanks to FFF because the car was incredible, easy to drive and very fast.”


3. Richard Lyons (#88 Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R)
“It was a very, very difficult race, the conditions were not easy because it looked as if it was dry and it looked as if it should have been getting quicker, but the car was on a bit of a knife edge and I think Frank can confirm that. The guys did a great job in the pit stop and got us back out in the lead, so overall we have to be really happy with the job that everybody has done because it has been very difficult to get here so I’m really happy with the overall result.”

3. Frank Yu (#88 Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R)
“The track was drying and I think on my third lap whilst I was leading, I hit some oil in turn three and the car turned around. At that stage Piti was not far behind me, and looking at his pace I would have let him through anyway. By then the rear tyres had gone and it was really difficult. If I’d had the choice I would have put slicks on, but at the time when Richard came in it was still wet. From there my engineer just gave me the gap to the cars behind and I just maintained that, until I saw the Lamborghini. They were behind our sister car and I didn’t think they had the pace to pass it, but two laps from home he was through and in pursuit of me. By that stage our tyres were completely gone so at the end, we were happy to be on the podium.”

GT Asia Series – Fuji International Speedway, Japan (16 July)
Qualifying#1 (15-minutes)
1. 88. Richard Lyons (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 1:52.454
2. 37. Davide Rizzo (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 1:52.954
3. 12. Carlo Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3) – 1:53.033
4. 6. Alex Yoong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 1:53.323
5. 8. Jonathan Venter (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 1:53.847
6. 91. Darryl O’Young (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 1:53.870
7. 95. George Miedecke (Miedecke Stone Aston Martin Vantage) – 1:53.884
8. 98. Tim Sugden (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 1:54.043
9. 55. Edoardo Liberati (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 1:54.165
10. 5. Shaun Thong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 1:54.423
11. 7. Adderly Fong (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 1:54.604
12. 9. Duncan Tappy (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 1:54.675
13. 59. Kantasak Kusiri (Singha Plan-B Motorsport Ferrari 458 Chall.) – 1:56.226
14. 3. Mok Weng Sun (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GT3) – 1:56.542
15. 17. Akihiro Asai (Team Rosso Scuderia Ferrari 458 Chall.) – 1:57.456
16. 73. Toshihito Funai (Team Naoryu Age Age Racing Ferrari 458 Chall.) – 1:58.724

Qualifying#2 (15-minutes)
1. 55. Andrea Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 1:53.864
2. 37. Anthony Liu (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 1:53.894
3. 95. Ashley Walsh (Miedecke Stone Aston Martin Vantage) – 1:54.066
4. 8. Keita Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 1:54.110
5. 12. Piti Bhirombhakdi (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3) – 1:54.186
6. 5. Marchy Lee (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 1:54.608
7. 88. Frank Yu (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 1:55.410
8. 3. Richard Wee (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GT3) – 1:55.858
9. 7. Andrew Kim (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 1:55.939
10. 9. Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) – 1:55.986
11. 91. Naiyanobh Bhirombakdi (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 1:56.094
12. 6. Alex Au (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 1:56.093
13. 98. Philip Ma (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 1:57.666
14. 59. Bhurit Bhirombhakdi (Singha Plan-B Ferrari 458 Chall.) – 1:59.026
15. 73. Funai/Ueda (Team Naoryu Age Age Racing Ferrari 458 Chall.) – 1:59.425
16. 17. Ken Seto (Team Rosso Scuderia Ferrari 458 Chall.) – 2:02.174

Race#1 (60-minutes)
1. 12. Van Dam/Bhirombhakdi (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3) – 30-laps
2. 55. Liberati/Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) +41.085
3. 88. Lyons/Yu (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) +44.985
4. 91. O’Young/Bhirombakdi (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) +45.548
5. 9. Tappy/Inthraphuvasak (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) +46.183
6. 8. Venter/Sawa (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) +51.496
7. 6. Yoong/Au (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +1:06.696
8. 7. Fong/Kim (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) +1:08.796
9. 5. Thong/Lee (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +1:19.282
10. 95. Miedecke/Walsh (Miedecke Stone Aston Martin Vantage) +1:38.860
11. 3. Mok/Wee(Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GT3) – 29-laps
12. 59. Kusiri/Bhirombhakdi (Singha Plan-B Motorsport Ferrari 458 Chall.)
13. 73. Funai/Ueda (Team Naoryu Age Age Racing Ferrari 458 Chall.)
14. 98. Sugden/Ma (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R)
15. 17. Asai/Seto (Team Rosso Scuderia Ferrari 458 Chall.) – 28-laps
DNF. 37. Liu/Rizzo (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 10-laps

GT3 Championship points (after seven rounds of 12)
1. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (79-points), 3. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (76), 5. Adderly Fong/Andrew Kim (74), 7. Marchy Lee/Shaun Thong (73), 9. Piti Bhirombhakdi/Carlo Van Dam (64), 11. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (56), 12. Jonathan Venter (52), 13. Alex Yoong/Alex Au (50), 15. Keita Sawa (45), 16. Tim Sugden (42), 17. Duncan Tappy (42), 18. Frank Yu/Richard Lyons, Darryl O’Young/Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (36), 22. Mok Weng Sun (28), 23. Jono Lester (22), 24. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 25. George Richardson (14), 26. Franky Cheng/JingZu Sun, Richard Wee (13), 29. George Miedecke (9), 30. Andrew Palmer (8), 31. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 33. Philip Ma (6), 34. Ashley Walsh (4)

Pro-Am Cup points (after seven rounds of 12)
1. Shaun Thong (89-points), 2. Anthony Liu (87), 3. Andrew Kim (80), 4 Piti Bhirombhakdi (79), 5. Alex Au (63), 6. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (60), 7. Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (50), 8. Frank Yu (45), 9. Philip Ma (18), 10. Mok Weng Sun (17), 10. JingZu Sun (16)

Pro Cup points (after seven rounds of 12)
1. Davide Rizzo (79-points), 2. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (76), 4. Adderly Fong (74), 5. Marchy Lee (73), 6. Carlo Van Dam (64), 7. Jonathan Venter (52), 8. Alex Yoong (50), 9. Tim Sugden (48), 10. Keita Sawa (45), 11. Duncan Tappy (41), 12. Darryl O’Young (37), 13. Richard Lyons (36), 14. Jono Lester (22), 15. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 16. George Richardson (14), 17. Franky Cheng (13), 18. Andrew Palmer, George Miedecke (8), 19. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 22. Nathan Morcom, Ashley Walsh (4)

GT Cup points (after seven rounds of 12)
1. Kantasak Kusiri/Bhurit Bhirombhakdi (84-points), 3. Voravud Bhirombhakdi/Tin Sritra (34), 5. Aekrat Discharoen (32), 6. Suttiluck Buncharoen, Toshihito Funai/Masayuki Ueda (16), 9. Akihiro Asai/Ken Seto (14)

Qualifying

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Lyons made a very positive start to the first qualifying session, recording a 1:54.454 lap time that was half a second quicker than the closest competitor and good enough to see the #88 pair start on pole for race one.

Frank Yu battled the damp conditions and clocked a 1:55.410 at the Fuji circuit, to see him start Sunday’s race two in P7.

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Darryl O’Young was in charge of the #91 VLT Porsche’s start position for race one and unfortunately for the Hong Kong driver, he hit traffic on his flying lap, which prevented him from maximizing his set of tyres to their full potential. O’Young recorded a 1:53.870 that was good for a P6 start later that afternoon.

Bhirmobhakdi fought hard to learn the track but struggled to adapt to the difficult conditions at Fuji. He secured a P11 start position with a time of 1:56.084.

Race One

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Lyons was on pole position for race one and he made the most of the start after the lights went out, confidently maintaining his lead into the first corner. From here, Lyons used his superior knowledge of the Fuji Speedway to gain an edge over the rest of the GT Asia field. He drove a flawless stint and managed to create a gap of six seconds over P2 by the time he pitted to change to his teammate. Frank left the pits with 25 minutes left on the clock and began to put in some solid lap times, managing to guide the Porsche through the treacherous conditions with good pace. Frank was pushing hard in P1 but the Singha Ferrari began to close in, pressuring the #88 Interush driver into a defensive driving style. Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, Frank spun but recovered quickly and got back up to speed. He was now in P2 but got his head down and charged to the finish, displaying immense car control and pace in the process. In the final few laps, Frank came under attack from the Lamborghini of Andrea Amici but put up a strong fight, defending his position with great skill. However, he couldn’t defend from the Lamborghini’s superior pace and let him pass, not willing to risk their podium position. The flag fell shortly after and Frank crossed the line in P3 to take the #88 Interush Porsche’s first podium of the year.

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

O’Young began the race one campaign for the #91 VLT Porsche and made an incredible start, jumping four places at the first corner to slot into P2. O’Young gave chase but soon became embroiled in a battle with Carlo Van Dam, who soon squeezed past. The Hong Kong driver was now securely in P3 and thanks to his good pace and consistency, he remained there until he handed over to Bhirombhakdi. The Thai driver got out on track and straight back into the fight in P3. He drove a confident stint and was looking strong, closing in on Frank in the #88 Interush Porsche towards the end of the race. However, the fast charging Lamborghini snuck up from behind and complicated things. Bhirombhakdi was simultaneously defending from Amici and challenging Frank for P2 just ahead. It made for some incredible racing over the next couple of laps, but Bhirombhakdi was unable to hold out until the chequered flag and slipped into P4. The young GT driver crossed the line after 60 minutes of intense racing and secured the #91 VLT Porsche its best finish of the season so far in P4.

Quotes

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Richard Lyons, Driver #88

“It was a fantastic feeling to be able to lead from the start but conditions proved to be really tricky and very difficult to keep the car on track. We managed to pull a bit of a gap from the cars behind and were able to get our first podium of the year for the #88 Interush Porsche after Frank’s stint.”

Frank Yu, Driver #88

“Race one was really tricky, it must have been one of the toughest races I’ve done in recent years. It was really difficult driving conditions, the track was very greasy and wet, especially with the fluid dropped by the Ferrari. I had a spin but recovered, but I did lose 20 seconds and the Lamborghini was able to catch me on the very last lap. Very happy to finish P3 and get Interush back on the podium.”

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Darryl O’Young, Driver #91

“I managed to get a really good start, moving up from P6 to P2 at turn one. That really helped to give Richard some clean air ahead of him before I was passed by Carlo Van Dam. I held P3 and passed the car over to Toy, who drove a really good stint. His confidence is improving with every race and he had some good fights out there, showing some good defence too. He finished the race in P4, which was really good for us.”

Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi, Driver #91

“What a race. It’s our best results to date for our car, and on top of that the other CBR car was able to get on the podium. I drove hard and fended off many attacking cars as much as I could to maintain our position. In the end the change in conditions really affected our tyres and I was not able to hold off the fast gaining Lamborghini. Overall, we see the potential, and the fact that we finally moved in the right direction is key”

Race Two

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Frank started race two in P6 and while he initially dropped down to P9 after being forced wide at turn one, he found the pace in the #88 Interush Porsche and began his charge back up the field. Frank displayed some of the best driving of the season so far and this allowed him to storm ahead and move into P6 before he changed over to Richard Lyons. Lyons is a master at Fuji and he put in another stellar drive, one that was even more impressive than his performance on Saturday. He carved his way up the field and at one point was closing in on the car ahead at over one second per lap. Seemingly out of nowhere, with less than two minutes to go, Lyons was on the back of the Bentley and managed to line up the perfect move down the pit straight to take P3 with only a minute left. The flag fell and Lyons had managed to hold his position, even pulling a small gap over P4 to see the #88 Interush pair stand proudly on the podium for the second time that weekend.

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

The lights went out for race two and Bhirombhakdi was off to a flying start, shooting up from P9 to P5 on the first lap, in what was another fantastic start by the GT3 rookie. Bhirombhakdi had some great battles throughout his stint and was showing just how much progress he has made since the start of the season. He handed over the car to O’Young in P6, who was shortly dropped down to P9 once the pit stop shuffle had been completed. O’Young did his best to find the pace but couldn’t muster it from the #91 VLT Porsche, finding it difficult on the current setup they were testing. The Hong Kong driver maintained his position until the end of the race and brought the car home in P9 to score some more points for Craft-Bamboo and  their #91 drivers’ championship.

Quotes

#88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R

Frank Yu, Driver #88

“I started race two in the dry and had a new set of tyres on but was pushed to the outside of turn one. We tried a new setup and did a pretty good job. I had a few fights with the bronze drivers. I handed over the car to Richard in P6 and he did an amazing job of bringing the car to P3.”

Richard Lyons, Driver #88

“We started race two a little further back but with the confidence we had from the pole position and Saturday’s podium, we felt really good and Frank was able to get his head down from the get go and settle into a great rhythm. Then just before the pit stops, he was able to jump up another position, which was vital. The car seemed great and I was happy with the performance, lap after lap we were closing on the leaders and we went from P6 to P3 on the final lap. It was an amazing feeling to get that double podium for Interush and all the guys on the team.”

#91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R

Darryl O’Young, Driver #91

“A little disappointing but Toy drove a really good stint. I think he elevated himself once again and passed a lot of cars on the start. He passed the car over to me and we came out ahead of Richard but just didn’t have the pace today to fight, we have been going two different directions with the setup and trying to learn as much we can. I don’t think we really hit the mark this weekend but hopefully in Shanghai we will take another step forward.”

Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi, Driver #91

“Despite the outcome I am fairly content and happy of how far we came. The team has really put together a good set up, which allowed me to really able to have a good start once again. I was able to get off cleanly and pick up several valuable positions in the first lap of the race again. I look to build on the momentum we gained this weekend in Shanghai.”

Richard Coleman, CEO of Craft-Bamboo Racing

“What an incredible result for the team and the #88 Interush Porsche. It is fantastic to see Craft-Bamboo back on the GT Asia podium and the team did an excellent job this weekend with the setup of both cars. We will be aiming to continue this momentum into Shanghai next month.”

The #88 Interush Porsche 911 GT3 R’s pursuit of the 2016 GT Asia Series title would not have been possible without Interush and W66.com

The #91 VLT Porsche 911 GT3 R’s pursuit of the 2016 GT Asia Series title would not have been possible without VLT, Singha Estate, TMB and AIS.

It also would not have been possible without our Team Partners: Gravity, POAD, Orangebus, Dixcel, freem and Tunewear