Races 7 and 8 of the 2014 GT Asia series saw the series visit a third country on its travels, Malaysia and the Sepang circuit.
In the first half of the season 6 races had seen 4 different winners. However the championship leaders Rob Bell and Hiroshi Hamaguchi had relied on consistency rather than wins as they had been on the podium in 5 out of 6 races but were yet to win.
Race 1
Qualifying for race one saw an all Audi front row, Alex Yoong on pole and Christopher Mies just behind. Behind was an all Ferrari 2nd row of Rui Aguas and Keita Sawa with Championship leader Rob Bell back in 6th.
As the race got under way the positions at the top were shuffled by the end of turn one.
Aguas started well and found a way alongside and then past pole sitter Yoong.
His pass had taken Yoong’s attention and Yoong ran deep into turn one allowing Mies in the 2nd Audi past. Mies had been very ill prior to the race with a severe bout of food poisoning. Unfortunately for Mies and his team mate Jeffrey Lee they had a double helping of bad luck. First of all Mies had to pit after just 15 minutes as he couldn’t continue any longer and was taken immediately to the medical centre and put on a saline drip. With Lee having had to drive far longer than he would expected his heart was broken as the car suffered terminal gearbox issues just ten minutes from the finish. The second of the front row Audi’s didn’t do much better the car also succumbing to technical issues.
The loss of the two Audis left Aguas leading in his Ferrari and Stefan Mucke chasing him down in his Aston Martin. Two potential podium runners Max Wiser in one of the NB Team Astons and Bjorn Wirdheim also found themselves side lined after a coming together.
As the compulsory stops began the leaders were in and out with Aguas handing the lead over to team mate Muzayyin and Craig Baird making a late surge and a quick stop to hand over his Clearwater Ferrari to Richard Wee in 2nd. Mucke had handed over to Frank Yu in 3rd but well within range of the Ferraris up ahead. In fact within a lap the Aston Martin of Yu had got past both Ferraris to take the lead.
Yu continued to push on and despite a late burst from Anthony Liu, who took six positions late on in the BBT Ferrari, Yu held on for the win. Liu followed him across the line just 6 seconds back with a hard charging Hiroshi Hamaguchi in the Clearwater McLaren back in 3rd. Behind the McLaren were the two Clearwater Ferraris.
In GTM points leader Thomas Fjordbach extended his lead in his Ferrari 458 Challenge with the win. But he was kept honest by the Aoki/Urata Gallardo and the Yeung/Dewal Audi R8.
Race 2
Qualifying for race two had left us with an unusual pole sitter in the shape of Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak’s Porsche GT3-R. The Thai driver was showing real pace and was pole fully on merit. 2nd was the 2nd placed car from race 1 the BBT Ferrari and rounding out the top three was one of the Clearwater Ferraris driven by Mok Weng Sun. Race one winners the #97 Craft-Bamboo Aston Martin were back in 9th.
From the start the Porsche held the lead. They were able to make use of the fact that they had an extra set of fresh tires due to their retirement in the previous day’s race. Liu kept battling away though and as the tire advantage became less of a factor Liu made his move and took the lead. The Porsche held strong in 2nd though with Mok Weng Sun slotting in in 3rd.
As the pit stops began Liu handed over from the lead but the mixture of a slow stop and their time penalty for finishing on the podium the previous day meant that Rizzo would not emerge up front. They left the pits with Sawa up front in his Clearwater Ferrari and Max Wiser close behind in one of the NB Team’s Aston Martins. Rizzo then followed in 3rd with Rob Bell not far behind.
Sawa and Wiser were trading fastest laps for much of the remaining 30 minutes but Sawa held on to take their 3rd win of the season, the first crew to win more than two races this year. Wiser had kept Sawa honest crossing the line just over a second behind. Rizzo held on for 3rd with Rob Bell managing a damage limitation run as the car was really struggling in the heat with its turbo. Bell was nearly taken on the line by the still unwell Mies in his Audi R8. Two casualties were race 1 winner Mucke and the race 2 pole sitting Porsche. The two cars coming together as Mucke attempted a pass and Piti hadn’t seen him in the Porsche. Mucke limped home 7th and the Porsche managed 11th.
In GTM the Lamborghini of Takuma Aoki and Ken Urata took the win which after year in competitive motorsport was Urata’s very first win. 2nd went to defending champion, Wayne Shen’s Porsche and the top three was rounded out by Marcel Tija also piloting a 997 GT3 Cup.
There is now nearly a month’s break before the next round of the series and races 9 and 10 will also be held at Sepang before the circus travels to China and then finally Macau in support of the Macau Grand Prix.
James Goodwin
