Round four of the 2016 GT Asia Series at Fuji Speedway proved to be a fantastic event, with two races full of thrills and drama. Ferrari customers team once again shined winning three out of four races during the weekend. The seventh race of the season was very much a matter of deja-vu with Singha Motorsport’s Piti Bhirom Bhakdi and Carlo Van Dam claiming their second ever win in the region’s leading GT championship exactly 12-months after they claimed their maiden win at the same venue, and in similar wet conditions.
The race. Off their first pole-position of the year, Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Richard Lyons got a brilliant start to lead the field to the compulsory pit stops, whilst behind him 2015 Fuji winner Carlo Van Dam was caught off the start dropping to fifth. He soon regrouped and led the pursuit of the #88 Interush Porsche, but no-one was going to deny Lyons who stopped six seconds clear of the pack, allowing team-leader Frank Yu to depart with a similar margin over Singha Motorsport’s Piti Bhirom Bhakdi.
Dominating win. The Thai driver showed impressive pace straight out of the gate, catching Yu quickly, but just as the Ferrari closed in, Yu got caught on the oil at turn three and had a lurid spin down to turn four allowing Bhirom Bhakdi to take the lead, a lead he extended to more than 40-seconds by chequered flag time.
Race-2. On Sunday Race-2 was won by the FFF Lamborghini fo Andrea Amici and Edoardo Liberati, now leading the championship, while Ferraris were only seventh (Van Dam-Bhirom Bhakdi) and eigth (the BBT team’s 488 GT3 of former championship leaders Davide Rizzo and Anthony Liu).
GTC triumphs. In the battle for GTC class honours, both wins went to points leaders Bhurit Bhirom Bhakdi and Kantasak Kusiri in the Singha Plan-B Motorsport Ferrari after two titanic battles with the Team Naoryu Age Age Racing Ferrari of Toshihito Funai and Masayuki Ueda. In both races third place went to the other Ferrari 458 Challenge EVO of Team Rosso Scuderia driven by Akihiro Asai and Ken Seto.
