After warnings of severe weather due to typhoon Jelawat being expected to hit the Autopolis circuit late on Saturday or early Sunday, the GT Asia Series organisers met with the Teams and decided to hold the Qualifying session as a ‘Qualifying Race’. This decision will mean that should the typhoon hit the circuit on Sunday, 29 September 2012, the Qualifying Race result will be taken as Round 9 and the second race held today as Round 10. However, if the Typhoon does not affect the original schedule then the original programme will stand.
The Qualifying Race was won by the Audi R8 LMS Ultra duo of Marchy Lee and Jeffrey Lee. Marchy started the race from pole but lost the lead at the start to Hisao Shigeta. The Japanese held his position for one lap before Marchy found a way past on lap 2 and held on to it to the pit stop session after which he handed the car to his teammate Jeffrey.
Jeffrey lost the lead to Shigeta on lap 11 but regained it when Shigeta was penalised for overtaking under safety car and was relegated to second. Mok Weng Sun finished the race in second ahead of Dilantha Malagamuwa while Billy Fung completed the top five. Frank Yu and Li Zhi Cong’s race ended when Li tried an overtaking manoeuvre on the inside of the Ford GT3 of Yu on lap 10 at turn 11, ending up on the gravel and bringing out the safety car until the last lap of the race.
The rain stopped right before the start of the second race, leaving the drivers to contend with changing track conditions. Shigeta once again had a good start claiming the lead and maintained his position throughout the race before being caught into a spin at the hairpin on the second last lap. He rejoined the race but not before Mok passing him to claim the lead. Li had a spectacular start, finishing third after starting the race at the back of the grid. He had a brilliant start and was already behind Mok in third midway through the opening lap, a position he held all the way to the end of the race. Shigeru Terashima claimed the win in both races today in his Porsche 997 3.8 Cup in the GT Master class. Keith Vong made a spectacular return to the Series claiming second in the first race and a third in the second race. Arrows Racing’s Jacky Yeung had a great weekend finishing third in the first race and second in the second race. At press time, the results will be held and remain provisional pending the weather.
