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Craft-Bamboo Racing take dominant victory in Korea - video

Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo claim points lead after finishing second

#88 Craft-Bamboo Aston Martin:  Frank Yu, Richard Lyons

#88 Craft-Bamboo Aston Martin: Frank Yu, Richard Lyons

Ho KC

#3 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Keita Sawa, Mok Weng Sun
#3 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Keita Sawa, Mok Weng Sun
#55 Craft-Bamboo Racing V12 Vantage GT3
#3 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Keita Sawa, Mok Weng Sun
#3 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Keita Sawa, /Mok Weng Sun
#55 Craft-Bamboo AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3: Darryl O'Young
#55 Craft-Bamboo Racing V12 Vantage GT3
#37 BBT Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Anthony Liu, Davide Rizzo
Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo
#37 BBT Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Anthony Liu Xu, Davide Rizzo
#1 Clearwater Racing Ferrari: Mok Weng Sun, James Calado
#99 CRAFT Racing Aston Martin: Jonathan Venter, Daniel Bilski
GT Asia South Korea: Race 1 start
Race 1 Podium: Frank Yu, Richard Lyons, Davide Rizzo, Anthony Liu, Mok Weng Sun, James Calado
Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: Keita Sawa, Mok Weng Sun

The opening round of the 2015 GT Asia Series provided what perhaps may have been seen as a surprise result considering the depth of talent and current-specification cars that have joined for the new season, although for the historians, the result was very much a case of deja-vu..

12-months ago BBT Ferrari drivers Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo stormed through to take back-to-back victories on debut, a pattern they continued into the opening round of the new season, despite many teams all but writing them off after qualifying at the tail of the top ten.

Much of the pre-race hype was focused on reigning champions Clearwater Racing and star recruit James Calado, and Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Richard Lyons, and whilst both teams battled over the lead with Italian star Andrea Caldarelli in the early stages of race one, Liu and Rizzo focused on their pre-race strategy and worked their way through to their third consecutive Korean victory.

 

 

Typical of the opening round of any new season, there were a number of high-profile casualties, one of which was Craft-Bamboo Racing duo Darryl O’Young and Jonathan Venter who were forced into retirement on the opening lap, however they had the perfect opportunity to recover from the lost opportunity by qualifying on pole for race two.

Alongside them on the front row would be the Absolute Team Bentley entry of Keita Sawa and Adderly Fong who were forced to start race one two laps down after an incident in qualifying prior to the race which forced the team to make an unscheduled engine change.

Off the start of the second round Venter charged with Fong initially sticking to the tail of the young Australian, whilst behind them round one winner Anthony Liu was quickly through to third and in pursuit of Fong.

Reigning champion Mok Weng Sun an early casualty

Sadly the first casualty of the race was reigning champion Mok Weng Sun, the #1 Clearwater Racing Ferrari unceremoniously forced off the circuit in the race for position into turn one after the J-Fly Racing Bentley clipped Jiang Xin in the McLaren which was spun into Mok’s path ultimately doing terminal damage and forcing his retirement.

Fellow 2014 podium placegetter Xin ultimately suffered a similar fate, a broken trailing arm as a result of the same incident forcing his retirement at the end of the lap.

The opening corner melee also served to drop Craft-Bamboo’s Frank Yu back down the order, forcing the Interush driver to mount a charge over the following laps to make back the lost positions. Anthony Liu too had come under fire in the run down to turn three with Thailand’s Todd Piti working his way through to second after a stunning start, relegating Fong to third in the process.

As a result of all of this Venter was gone, but his three second advantage on the opening lap was negated almost immediately with the Safety Car deployed to recover the #1 Clearwater Racing Ferrari.

After the Safety Car returned to pit lane the pole-sitter got the jump on the pack to comfortably lead into turn one, whilst behind him Anthony Liu attacked, taking both Fong and Piti under brakes to jump into second position.

From there Venter charged, putting together a string of qualifying laps in the brilliant yellow VLT Aston Martin to open up a comfortable margin ahead of his compulsory pit stop [CPS]. Behind him team-mate Frank Yu and FFF Racing Team by ACM driver Hiroshi Hamaguchi started to move their way forward, up to fourth and fifth respectively after hauling in Piti before the CPS, Hamaguchi and the Thai Ferrari driver the first to pit as soon as the compulsory pit stop window opened, whilst the top four continued on.

After their compulsory stops, Lyons came out immediately behind Hamaguchi’s co-driver Tonio Liuzzi, the former Formula 1 star holding the Irishman at bay for a lap before the Aston Martin driver dived down the inside under brakes to take the position away. Lyons was soon onto the tail of Yokomizo in the Singha Ferrari, and quickly through to fourth place.

Up front the leader hit the pits at the mid point of the race, and with no additional time penalty by virtue of their race one DNF, and with a fresh set of Michelin tyres to bolt onto the car, O’Young was soon down to Venter’s pace, the popular Hong Kong-based driver extending their lead over the closing laps.

Behind him Sawa in the Absolute Team Bentley was being hauled in by round one winner Rizzo who was punching out a sequence of laps in the low 2:07s. He was soon onto the tail of the Bentley and through for second, the Japanese driver then coming under fire from Lyons. He admitted post race that early in his session the car started to develop oversteer, something which was attributed to the boot-lid on the mighty Bentley Continental popping up and beginning to operate as an air-brake, dropping his pace by as much as a second a lap.

Lyons was on a charge, but so too Andrea Caldarelli in the FFF Racing Team by ACM McLaren, the Italian punching out laps in the mid 2:06s.. the pace of the leaders in the closing stages of the race, in many cases faster than their qualifying laps!

After moving past Sawa, Lyons set his focus on the rear of the BBT Ferrari of Davide Rizzo, but despite making inroads into the void between them, Lyons’ pace suddenly dropped significantly, the team revealing post-race that he’d become stuck in gear. Despite the sudden lack of pace he battled on to finish ninth and claim more valuable championship points.

In the end though the big story of round two was the pace of the second Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin. O’Young and Venter were untouchable, ultimately dominating the race with O’Young continuing to press on at qualifying pace over the final laps to deliver a strong message to the team’s rivals for the remaining rounds of the season.

Davide Rizzo crossed the line just nine seconds back from O’Young, the team’s additional 12-second pit-stop parity penalty all but negating any challenge they would make on a fourth consecutive win, but the result stamped their domination on the South Korean circuit, the BBT team leaving the opening event with a strong points lead in the championship.

Sawa and Fong recover from qualifying accident to claim podium finish

With his ‘air-brake’ still activated, Keita Sawa crossed the line in third place, the #8 Bentley team recovering from the disappointment of missing the start in race one to claim more valuable championship points, the result elevating them to second in the championship.

Across the closing laps Sawa came under increasing pressure from Yokomizo, Craig Baird and Tonio Liuzzi, the four cars separated by just 1.3-seconds at the drop of the flag. Jean-Karl Vernay crossed the line in position seven, just ahead of Fairuz Fauzy in the OD Racing Lamborghini. The former F1 test-driver charged across the final laps to complete a great debut by the Malaysian team, his team-mate Zen Low particularly impressive across the opening laps in just his maiden event in GT Asia.

Whilst the outright GT3 cars turned in another great performance, in GTM the battle between Jerry Wang in the Absolute Racing Audi R8 and Keiichi Mori and Hisashi Kunie in the Gulf Racing JP Porsche carried on all the way to the chequered flag, with all three drivers setting personal best lap times as they continued to gain valuable experience on their GT Asia Series debuts.

Ultimately the victory went to Wang, the two Japanese Porsche drivers though promising to turn the tables when the series returns to Japan for rounds two and three.

Driver quotes

Darryl O’Young - 1st Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3: “Of course it was disappointing yesterday to be hit off on the first lap, but you have to put that behind you and just focus on the race. We had pole position today, and it was actually the perfect scenario as we had two sets of good tyres and we knew that Anthony and Davide were also carrying an additional penalty from winning race one. I think this year the competition is so strong that there are really a number of teams that can win the championship, which makes it exciting, but I think also from track-to-track you will see the differences between the various cars, and this one really worked well for the Aston. It’s still wide open and there’s still a long way to go in the championship.

Jonathan Venter - 1st Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3: “I think the Aston really suits the track and we expected to be strong here and had two new sets of tyres after our early retirement yesterday, so we knew we’d be fast during the race with our new tyre advantage. There was always the pressure from behind, and I think during the race we had to manage the gap and it worked out in the end.”

Anthony Liu - 2nd BBT Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: “I’m not honestly sure why we’re here, because my race pace again was faster than my qualifying, so obviously my right foot did most of the talking. The whole thing is very delicate, sometimes it plays in your favour, sometimes it doesn’t, but I’m very happy to be on the podium again.”

Davide Rizzo - 2nd BBT Ferrari 458 Italia GT3: “I started to push after the stop when I could see Keita [Sawa] in front of me, and moved through for position and then just maintained the gap to the flag, a good result for us.”

Keita Sawa - 3rd Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3: “We are race drivers, so when I compete, my goal is to win the race. I am very happy to get to the podium, especially after yesterday’s race where we started two laps behind. I don’t know when the boot lid popped up, but for much of my stint I seemed to have to fight oversteer and I wasn’t sure why, but after the race when I got out of the car I understood..”

Adderly Fong - 3rd Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3: “In yesterday’s race we started on the back foot after my incident in qualifying, but the team managed to get the car out two laps down but we put together some points. Today we just wanted to keep consistent because at the end of the year it is going to be about championship points, and that’s what we’re aiming for - obviously the more the better.”

Race #2 (60-minutes)

1. Darryl O’Young/Jonathan Venter (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston)
2. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (BBT Team Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
3. Adderly Fong/Keita Sawa (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
4. Piti Bhirom Bhakdi/Naoki Yokomizo (Singha Ferrari 458)
5. Richard Wee/Craig Baird (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458)
6. Hiroshi Hamaguchi/Tonio Liuzzi (FFF Racing McLaren 650S GT3)
7. Jeffrey Lee/Jean-Karl Vernay (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
8. Zen Low/Fairuz Fauzy (OD Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3)
9. Frank Yu/Richard Lyons (Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin)
10. Fu Song Yang/Andrea Caldarelli (FFF Racing McLaren GT3)
11. Shouta Hanaoka/Kimihiro Yashiro (Gulf Racing Porsche GT3-R)
12. Jacky Yeung/Duncan Tappy (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
13. Jerry Wang (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3)*
14. Keiichi Mori/Hisashi Kunie (Gulf Racing JP Porsche GT3 Cup)*

DNF. 9. Jiang Xin/Max Wiser (FFF Racing McLaren 650S GT3)
DNF. 1. Mok Weng Sun/James Calado (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458)
*GTM Class

2015 GT Asia Series - Championship Points

GT3 (after round two of 11)

1. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (34-points), 2. Adderly Fong/Keita Sawa (20), 3. Richard Lyons/Frank Yu (19), 4. Darryl O’Young/Jonathan Venter (18), 5. Mok Weng Sun/James Calado (16), Jeffrey Lee/Jean-Karl Vernay (16), 7. Sean Fu/Andrea Caldarelli (11), 8. Jiang Xin/Max Wiser (10), Piti Bhirom Bhakdi/Naoki Yokomizo (10), 10. Richard Wee/Craig Baird (9), Jacky Yeung/Duncan Tappy (9), 12. Hiroshi Hamaguchi/Vitantonio Liuzzi (8), 13. Zen Low/Fairuz Fauzy (6), 14. Jerry Wang (5), 15. Keiichi Mori/Hisashi Kunie (4), 16. Shota Hanaoka/Kimihiro Yashiro (2)

GTM (after round two of 11)

1. Jerry Wang (36-points), 2. Keiichi Mori/Hisashi Kunie (32)

GT Asia Series

 

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