Jonathan Venter and Kieta Sawa emerged victorious in Race 2 at Shanghai, after a faultless performance in the #8 Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3, ahead of the (now) championship-leading FFF Lamborghini of Edoardo Liberati and Andrea Amici and the Absolute Bentley of Duncan Tappy and Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak.
It was another exciting sprint for the GT Asia Series, after the incredible action seen in the closing stages of Race 1 which saw the BBT team charge through and take a win. This time round though, the BBT team would struggle mightily in the second half of the race, and finish up 10th with its rivals finishing second, denting its chances of a championship win at the finale.
At the start, the #55 FFF Huracan of Amici would take the lead off the pole-sitting sister Lambo of Jeoren Mul before driving off into the distance.
Behind, Mul had his mirrors full of the BBT Ferrari of Anthony Liu and Keita Sawa’s Bentley, though the trio would be caught by Jono Lester’s Gruppe M Porsche which had a remarkable run through the pack, only to go unrewarded at the end.
The Kiwi steered the Porsche through past the AAI Mercedes of Solomon for fifth, then Shaun Thong’s Phoenix Audi for fourth, eventually getting past a struggling Liu at the final hairpin. In a thrilling sequence of events, Liu lost out to Lester, with Solomon’s Mercedes and Thong’s Audi following him through before the round of stops.
After the end of the pit cycle, Tim Sugden took over the Gruppe M Porsche and was in the lead when he rejoined the race, immediately being hassled by Jonathan Venter’s Bentley which moved into the lead at the first hairpin.
From then on it would be plain sailing for the leading Absolute Bentley, with Liberati in the third place FFF Lamborghini struggling to get past Sugden. When he did in the closing stages of the race, the floodgates opened and Richard Antinucci’s FFF Lamborghini and Fong’s Bentley also pushed past at the final hairpin, as Sugden pitted for a (un-disclosed) drive-through penalty.
While this was happening, Davide Rizzo – who drove so well in Race 1 – continued to fall down the order to 11th. After being handed the 488 down in eighth after the stops, he was passed by Alex Young and Franky Cheng’s Phoenix and Absolute Audis, before Nico Bastian also made a move in the #66 AAI AMG GT3. In the end, the Gruppe M penalty did promote Rizzo and the BBT squad into a points paying position; 10th.
It wasn’t over at the head of the field though, wth Duncan Tappy charging past Adderly Fong’s Bentley for fourth down the pit straight in the final nine minutes before the pair of Bentley’s smothered Antinucci’s Lamborghini round the outside at Turn 1 to take third and fourth, demoting the American to fifth.
Shaun Thong later did further damage to the second FFF Lambo’s race, when he too got past Antinucci down the back-straight to snatch a top five finish in the #5 Phoenix R8 LMS.
The final two races of the 2016 GT Asia Series season are to be held at Zhejiang on the 21st-23rd of October.
