After two qualifying sessions and the opening 50-minute race, it was Clearwater Racing who had the widest smiles by the end of the third round of the 2014 GT Asia Series, with former champion Mok Weng Sun and co-driver Keita Sawa prevailing on the challenging Autopolis circuit.
In front of an almost full main straight grandstand, the opening GT Asia Series race finally got underway after its third attempt at a start, officials concerned about how far the 27-car grid was spread out as the leaders hit the start line, preferring instead to bunch the field up and send them around again.. and then again..
On the third attempt Lyons slowed the field down so much, that it ultimately cost him the lead, Craig Baird in the Clearwater Racing Ferrari pulling alongside the Aston on the run into turn one, with Rui Aguas going around the outside, the two Ferraris dropping the pole-sitter back to third on the run through to turn two.
Behind them mayhem ensued as the Nissan GT-R of Tetsuya Tanaka moved across into the braking zone, straight into the path of Hiroki Yoshimoto, forcing him into the side of his team-mate – the luckless Alex Yoong. “They say it’s the gentleman drivers you have to watch out for at this level, when in fact it’s the professional drivers who are trying to prove a point that are the problem,” Yoong lamented after being forced into retirement with broken suspension for the second round in succession.
He wasn’t the only casualty of the opening lap fracas, Takashi Hata was forced wide on the exit of the final turn and into the gravel trap near pit entry, beaching the Porsche GT3-R with damage to the rear of the car. Five laps later his team-mate, Fukujirou was also out, spinning his Porsche 997 Cup car into the turn one gravel trap, ending what had been a good run to that point for the two Team KRM Porsches.
Up front the leaders started turning laps in the low to mid 49s as they pulled away from the field ahead of the compulsory pit stops, but just ahead of the pit stop window opening, the field was brought under Safety Car conditions for the stranded Joel Camathias who had rolled to a stop on the edge of the circuit with power-steering failure.
Amazingly for the leading Aston team – that of Richard Lyons, lap ten would also prove a game-changer for them after Lyons – who was mounting an assault on an ailing Aguas for second – suddenly slowed to walking pace. Lyons was quickly back up to speed, but had dropped down to ninth after he reset the car’s systems.
Lyons delay had also provided Rui Aguas with some breathing space, something the Portugese driver had been searching for after battling with contact from the opening lap after an incident with one of the Aston Martins forced the rear diffuser to come apart and start rubbing on the right rear tyre.
Fortunately he was able to make his intended pit window to have the team effect repairs during their compulsory stop before handing the car to Muzayyin.
The big winner during the pit stop sequences was Keita Sawa who handed the car across to Mok Weng Sun – the former race winner and dual series champion left the pits immediately in front of Hiroshi Hamaguchi in the car he’d shared with Weng Sun during 2013.
The two drivers battled for the lead almost immediately, Hamaguchi clearly carrying extra pace and pushing hard to find a way past the Clearwater Racing team boss. He admitted afterwards that the pace of the Ferrari was so good that his options to effect a clean pass were limited, so he tried a run alongside the Ferrari under braking into turn one. Hamaguchi stayed out wide as Weng Sun cut across to the apex, with the Japanese driver looking to undercut him on the overlap, but out on the ‘marbles’ towards the outer edge of the circuit, the McLaren driver spun whilst attacking for the lead.
Fortunately he was able to rejoin the field after driving steadily through the gravel trap that had already claimed the Team KRM Porsche, and continue.
Behind the battle for the top podium positions, the Ferrari of championship points leaders Davide Rizzo and Anthony Liu had crept back into contention, and three laps from home they were looking good to make a podium finish when Liu was taken off the circuit at turn six after an apparent error from K.S. Wang in the Taiwan Top Speed Racing Ferrari 458 Challenge. The GTM class contender spun into the side of Liu whilst trying to give him room to pass, forcing both cars off, and forcing ‘game over’ for the #37 ‘Spirit of Race’ Ferrari.
Sadly for their team-mates, Rui Aguas and Nasrat Muzayyin, they too were forced into retirement on the final lap, after Nasrat came into contact with one of the Audis, forcing them to retire before the flag.
Another casualty was impressive young Australian Nathan Antunes. After picking up a solid advantage during Dilantha Malagamuwa’s pit stop under Safety Car conditions, Antunes was clearly the quickest car on the circuit and hauling in the leaders from the tail end of the top ten, but just three laps after the Safety Car pulled off the circuit, so too did he.
Race#1 (50-minutes)
- 3. Keita Sawa/Mok Weng Sun (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 25-laps
- 97. Richard Lyons/Frank Yu (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin Vantage) -5.762
- 32. Hiroshi Hamaguchi/Rob Bell (Clearwater Racing McLaren MP4-12C) -9.545
- 99. Carlo Van Dam/Tanart Sathienthirakul (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin) -15.636
- 12. Craig Baird/Richard Wee (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) -26.058
- 9. Jiang Xin/Max Wiser (NB Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3) -22.200
- 21. Francis Tjia (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) -1:12.657*
- 13. Tetsuya Tanaka/Motoyoshi Yoshida (B-Max Racing Nissan GT-R GT3) -1:23.410
- 7. Jeffrey Lee/Hiroki Yoshimoto (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra GT3) -1:24.217
- 77. Jacky Yeung/Keith Vong (Tiger Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) -1.25.914*
- 88. George Chou/Thomas Fjordbach (Taiwan Top Speed 458 Challenge) -1:37.612*
- 34. Takuma Aoki/Ryu Ohtsuka (Dilango Racing Gallardo LP560 GT3) -1:37.949*
- 17. Jian Wei Wang/Sun Jing Zu (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra GT3) -1:45.511
- 96. Michael Chua (Mike Racing Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3) -1:47.971
- 68. John Shen/Samson Chan (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) – 24-laps*
- 25. Christian Chia (IMS Audi R8 LMS GT3)*
- 16. Wayne Shen (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup)*
- 8. Robert Lee/Keo Chang (Taiwan Top Speed Ferrari 458 Challenge)*
- 18. Craig Liu/Joe Hsu Cheng Chang (Taiwan Top Speed 458 Challenge) – 23-laps*
- DNF. 38. Rui Aguas/Nasrat Muzayyin (Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 24-laps
- DNF. 24. Dilantha Malagamuwa/Nathan Antunes (Dilango Racing Gallardo FL2 GT3) – 22-laps
- DNF. 22. K.S. Wang/Ryo Fukuda (Taiwan Top Speed Ferrari 458 Challenge) – 21-laps*
- DNF. 5. Joel Camathias/Fu Song Yang (NB Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3) – 10-laps
- DNF. 33. Fukujirou (Team KRM Porsche 997 GT3 Cup) – 6-laps
- DNF. 98. Alex Yoong/Egidio Perfetti (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra GT3) – 1-lap
- DNF. 92. Aki Miyazaki/Takashi Hata (Team KRM Porsche 997 GT3-R) – 0-laps
- DSQ. 37. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
