It was a great day for all of us as my team mate, Marco Holzer and I finished round 2 of the FIA GT Championship in fourth position in the GT2 category..

The competition was extremely fierce as the the top 7 cars qualified with less than 0.4 tenths of a second between them. This is a testiment to how competitive this class truly is. Marco qualified the car and did a fantastic time putting our Porsche in 4th place in qualifying.

With all the cars so close in the qualifying session, it was important for the team to make a good race setup so that our car could be quick for an entire stint.

At the race start, Marco got off well, however, in Turn 1, he was stuck on the inside and everyone overslowed in front of him. This gave many of the cars behind him an opportunity to overtake him on the outside. He was unable to do anything about this.

We dropped back to 8th place after the first lap. Marco had good pace and was now stuck behind a train of 6 cars. The two leaders were able to pull away while we were stuck in traffic.

Our team made a quick decision to change our strategy. We called Marco in early and made an early driver change and pit for fuel only. This was in hopes that I would be able to get out of traffic and get some clear laps.

I drove hard for a 40 min stint well behind the GT2 field. It was a bit strange as I wasn't battling with anyone because we were on a different strategy, just trying to put down consistenly fast laps for the entire stint. I knew that every tenth of a second would count so I pushed for every bit of time.

At around the 1 hour mark, Marco got back into the car and he was scheduled to finish the race with a 1 hour stint. We made our driver change and pit for fuel and tires.

Marco drove a very strong stint. At first, it still looked like we were very far back in the pack...but as we reached the final 30 minutes, many cars went in for their final pit stops. We started to jump up the leader board and at the end, we were fighting for fourth position.

He started to close in on P3 and had to fight off Ragginger behind him. At the end, we were able to keep our fourth place but finished only 2 seconds behind the final podium position.

It was a hard fought race and we were all very pleased with the result. I feel the all of us as a team have made big improvements as we have been able to get used to working with each other more. Our experience keeps building up and both Marco and I feel like we have alot more confidence with the FIA GT Championship and the Porsche GT3 RSR.

Much to our delight, we are currently tied for 3rd position in the GT2 driver classifications and Prospeed Competition was able to extend our lead in the team championship table.

I'm on my way home back to Hong Kong now. I will get a much needed rest over the next 2 weeks before I head for my next race.

More updates to come soon! Cheers!

Hey everyone! I’m in Adria, Italy this weekend for the 2nd round of the FIA GT Championship. Adria is just outside Venice placed in the country sides of Italy. I was able to get 2 days rest in Hong Kong before flying over here to Italy on Wednesday night.

On a side note, just before I flew here, I was able to join a charity fund raiser for F.O.C.U.S. which was held at Dragon I and Sideways Driving Club, a race simulator club. I was glad to be a part of it as this charity has an aim to help children with learning disabilities. Many people gathered to participate in a silent auction over drinks as well as compete in a competition in race simulators. I didn’t race that night but I was just giving driving tips to help the competitors drive faster!! It was great fun…

Now back to the racing in Italy! I went straight to the circuit after arriving in Italy via London… I flew in with one of my team mates Richard Westbrook and we shared a rental car(an Opel Corsa, the car has absolutely no power!) to make the drive to the track…

It’s quite interesting as this circuit is a lot smaller than I had expected. For those that know the Asian race circuits, its bigger than the Beijing circuit, however, it reminds me of a smaller version of the Zhu Hai circuit with many hairpins and braking zones.. The main difference is that the braking zones all seemed to be curved making it a bit more difficult than straight brake zones..

I’m generally quite quick on the smaller circuits so I’m hoping that this circuit will fit my driving style.

As I qualified the car in Silverstone, we have decided that my team mate Marco Holzer will qualify the car this wknd which means he will also start the race. In that case, the driver that starts the race means they will drive 2 stints in the competition and I will drive the middle stint. As my team mate and I are very equal in lap times, we will continue to rotate amongst different circuits.

The weekend schedule in Italy this weekend will be very tight as our race will be on Saturday night! The race runs from 8-10pm so it will be a proper night race. Therefore, on Friday night, we will have a Friday night practice…

I will give you all an update when I can and I’ll also try to snap a few photos from around the pits etc…
Ciao!!

I just narrowly missed my perfect race wknd as I was unable to complete the double victory in race 2 of the weekend.

In race 1, the race went very smoothly for me. Off the line, I had to fight extremely hard but I managed to keep Menzel at bay. We were side by side for almost 3/4 of the first lap as he attacked hard, but I was able to keep the lead after the first lap.

Thanks to my engineer Sven Schnabl and Team Jebsen, the car was setup very well and felt fantastic. I was able to set a series of fastest race laps and extend my lead up to six seconds by the chequered flag. It was a perfect race, one that I wanted to repeat for race 2 in the afternoon.

After qualifying yesterday, I spoke to the race director about something I felt wasn't right. On the Beijing Circuit, there is a very short run into turn 1, however, pole position is set on the outside line to the left. I requested that pole position be moved to the right side for the standing start but according to the rules the pole position must stay as FIA has deemed pole position on a circuit, even though the race director agreed with me about the start position.

In race 2, I had a good start, but Menzel was able to get a nose inside me, and that was enough for him to grab the race lead after turn 1. I drove a hard race, and everytime Menzel pulled a small gap, I'd answer and close it back up. With Beijing being a tight twisty circuit, there just wasn't room to make a move, and Menzel drove a strong race without mistake. I had to settle for 2nd position in race 2 just 0.35 seconds behind him at the chequered flag. The race was lost in turn 1 and I'm not very happy about that as I feel pole position usually should be an advantage rather than a disadvantage!

It was a pitty as I was quickest in all 3 practices, had pole position and won race 1, so it was a shame not to score maximum points this weekend. Nonetheless, I am still very pleased with the results from this weekend and am thankful to score the points in comparison to the disasterous weekend I had in Shanghai a couple weeks back! The next Carrera Cup Asia race will be in June for rounds 5&6 at the Zhu Hai International Circuit in China.

I'm back in Hong Kong tonight and here till Wed, but fly straight off again to Venice, Italy for round 2 of the FIA GT Championship next weekend!

I'll have a few updates this week before Italy as I have a few interviews and a charity function to attend before I take off on wed...ciao!

Race 1 Results:

1 55 Darryl O’YOUNG (HKG)ATeam Jebsen (HKG)20:07.998
2 99 Christian MENZEL (GER)ATeam StarChase (CHN)+5.946
3 88 Tim SUGDEN (GBR)AGruppeM Racing (CHN)+11.534
4 20 Rodolfo AVILA (MAC)AAsia Racing Team (MAC)+11.764
5 16 Danny CHU (NED)AStichting Chu Racing (INA)+23.158


Race 2 Results:

1 99 Christian MENZEL (GER)ATeam StarChase (CHN)20:10.101
2 55 Darryl O’YOUNG (HKG)ATeam Jebsen (HKG)+0.371
3 88 Tim SUGDEN (GBR)AGruppeM Racing (CHN)+25.284
4 16 Danny CHU (NED)AStichting Chu Racing (INA)+30.308
5 11 Ringo CHONG (SIN)ATeam Kangshun (CHN)+38.377

The day started off well as I was able to finish the 3rd and final practice session in 1st position. I managed to stay on top of the leaderboard for all 3 practice sessions during the wknd which defintely gave myself and the team a confidence boost.

I was quite pleased today as I really had to put myself to the challenge during my qualifying session. On the opening few laps, I was able to lay down a series of quick lap times with the first 5 laps all being within 1 tenth of a second. However, it was not good enough losing out to Christian Menzel by 0.07 seconds!

This meant I had to go out again to try and better my lap time. I waited for the track to clear a bit as it was a bit dirty earlier on in the session. On the last 10 minutes, I was able to put two quick times both within 0.03 seconds of each other and 0.3 seconds quicker than my previous lap time.

This was good enough for first position for the qualifying session which gave me the bonus point for 1st and an important start position for tomorrows race.

Below are the lap times from todays session

1 55 Darryl O’YOUNG (HKG)ATeam Jebsen (HKG)1.06.323
2 99 Christian MENZEL (GER)ATeam StarChase (CHN)+0.304
3 20 Rodolfo AVILA (MAC)AAsia Racing Team (MAC)+0.467
4 88 Tim SUGDEN (GBR)AGruppeM Racing (CHN)+0.526
5 16 Danny CHU (NED)AStichting Chu Racing (INA)+1.208
6 6 Dilantha MALAGAMUWA (SRI)ADilango Racing (JPN)+1.224
7 33 MOK Weng Sun (SIN)ATeam PCS Racing (SIN)+1.688
8 11 Ringo CHONG (SIN)ATeam Kangshun (CHN)+1.725
9 7 Jeffrey LEE (TPE)APTRS Motorsport (CHN)+2.264
10 69Melvin CHOO Kwok Ming (SIN)BCorum ThunderAsia Racing (SIN)+2.699
11 98Philip MA (HKG)BJacob & Co Racing (HKG)+2.949
12 5 Yuey TAN YuHian (SIN)BTeam PCS Racing (SIN)+3.051
13 68MAK Hing Tak (HKG)BOMAK Team (HKG)+4.636

Hey everyone...I love back to back race weekends.. Although the travelling is a bit tough, I really enjoy knowing that I have a race coming up again right away..

So after last weekends race in Silverstone, I have flown half way across the world over to Beijing for rounds 3&4 of the championship.

It is the first time for the series to return to Beijing after a 2 year absence. This track is far from being a proper circuit. It is tight, twisty, and narrow witht he circuit surrounded by walls! With that being said, I like racing here because it is a track that has brought alot of success for me.

In 2004, I scored my first ever podium finishes in the PCCA taking two consecutive second place finishes. I followed that result with a double victory in 2005 and again a double victory in 2006. So in 6 races, I have 4 wins and 2 runner-ups here a the Goldenport circuit.

I have alot of points to make up this weekend after falling behind with a DNF and a flat tire in rounds 1 & 2 so I need a perfect weekend to make up some points.

The weekend started well as we have been quickest in free practice 1 & 2 today. The track has very low grip as it may have not been raced on in a little while, so I think a good setup will be very important in the races this wknd.

Qualifying is tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. They say it might rain tonight and tomorrow, so I'll have my fingers crossed that it'll stay dry.

Come back tmrw for some qualfiying updates!