Round 2 of the GT Asia 2015 season saw races 3 and 4 of the hotly contested championship. 15 well turned out GT3 cars once again lined up for battle having made the trip from South Korea to Okayama in Japan.
With names including Bruni, Lyons, Tappy, Liuzzi, Griffin, Wiser and Soucek there was certainly quality on show and qualifying didn’t disappoint. Qualifying for race one saw the quicker driver from each car do battle for pole position. It was Andy Soucek who came out on top in the first of 3 Absolute Bentleys. Only a tenth back though was Richard Lyons in the first of the two Craft Bamboo Aston Martins. Lyons though was sandwiched by Bentleys with Duncan Tappy a further tenth behind in 3rd. There was not much to choose between much of the field though. The top eight were all within half a second of pole.
Race 1
There was drama in race one even before the green lights went out. The Clearwater Ferrari 458 driven by Gianmaria Bruni caught fire. The fire took hold quickly but Bruni ever the professional found the nearest marshal post and pulled up next to it. The damage though was too much to repair and the championship winning car from last year took no further part in the weekend’s proceedings.
Another early loss was one of the FFF McLarens the #9 car driven at the time by Max Wiser succumbing to a brake issue without managing a full lap.
As the pack got away after the delay Soucek held off Lyons well into the 1st corner. With the front two focused on each other Tappy took advantage and got past Lyons up into 2nd to make it a Bentley 1-2.
Close behind the top three was a McLaren on the move in the hands of Tonio Liuzzi. Liuzzi’s pressure eventually paid off a Lyons made a very rare mistake and spun off into the gravel. He continued but was way down the order.
In the midst of the driver changes the the McLaren managed to get up into 2nd. Liuzzi had stayed out longer than both Bentleys and the extra laps at speed had allowed him to split the Continentals. Unfortunately for those hoping for a battle for the win the leading #7 Bentley and the #8 Bentley in 3rd were given penalties in quick succession for speeding in the pit lane. In the blink of an eye Bentley’s commanding position had fallen apart.
The McLaren now in the hands of last year’s championship challenger Hiroshi Hamaguchi was left with a commanding lead. It was a lead that never looked threatened and Hamaguchi went on the take the flag nearly 20 seconds ahead of #11 Singha Ferrari 458 of Carlo Van Dam and Piti Bhirom Bhakdi. Third was another Ferrari of the familiar pairing of Rizzo and Liu.
Race #1 (50-minutes)
1. 55. Tonio Liuzzi/Hiroshi Hamaguchi (FFF Racing McLaren 650S GT3) – 32-laps
2. 11. Carlo Van Dam/Piti Bhirom Bhakdi (Singha Ferrari 458) +19.901
3. 37. Davide Rizzo/Anthony Liu (BBT Team Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) +20.291
4. 99. Darryl O’Young/Jonathan Venter (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston) +33.582
5. 7. Andy Soucek/Jeffrey Lee (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
+47.944
6. 12. Craig Baird/Richard Wee (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458) +54.014
Race 2
Qualifying for race two had seen Bentley on Pole once more but this time the #8 car, driven in qualifying by Adderly Fong. Fong was joined on the front row by Jonathan Venter in the Craft Bamboo Aston Martin he shares with Darryl O’Young.
The race itself endured a false start thought to be caused by an error with the starting system. The race was red flagged and started again. At the restart Fong kept 1st quite easily and was followed closely by Venter’s Aston Martin and Liu’s Ferrari. A little further back Jeffrey Lee spun the #7 Bentley and was collected hard by the #24 Lamborghini both cars were out on the spot. The incident brought out the safety car just 2 minutes before the pit stop window.
With nobody able to pit under the safety car there was a flurry of cars that came in straight behind the safety car when it was withdrawn.
Once the dust had settled The leader was still the #8 Bentley, Fong had now handed over to Keita Sawa. Sawa held a slim margin over O’Young in the #99 Aston Martin with a hard charging Lyons in the #88 Aston just behind. With Lyons closing in quickly Sawa had to make his move and get away down the road. O’Young sensed of the two Astons Lyons had the better chance of the win and let his team mate by to chase the Bentley. Lyons did a great job closing the gap but ultimately fell just short, crossing the line just 4 tenths behind Sawa. In holding on Sawa had secured Bentley’s first win with the continental in Asia.
Back in 3rd O’Young very nearly lost out to an inspired drive from Matt Griffin in the first of the Clearwater Ferraris but just held on to take the final podium position.
Race #2 (45-minutes)
1. 8. Adderly Fong/Keita Sawa (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) – 26-laps
2. 88. Frank Yu/Richard Lyons (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin GT3) +0.401
3. 99. Jonathan Venter/Darryl O’Young (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston) +2.347
4. 12. Richard Wee/Matt Griffin (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458) +2.941
5. 37. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (BBT Team Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) +3.503
6. 11. Piti Bhirom Bhakdi/Carlo Van Dam (Singha Ferrari 458) +4.089
