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!

It has been a long and tough weekend in Silverstone for the first round of the FIA GT Championship. It has been a less than smooth weekend, but definitely a big learning experience as we faced many challenges throughout the weekend.

With the stellar field of drivers, the qualifying was tight and even with my qualifying time 1 second from 1st position in the GT2 class, it was only enough to put me in 11th position for the start of the race.

The day didn't start as planned as in the morning warm up, an oil seal in the gearbox broke which ended our session after 1 lap. We shrugged off the warm up and prepared for the race. Our focus was to drive without mistake, try to keep our tires in good condition for the long stints, and to make quick and perfect driver changes/pit stops.

My team mate, Marco Holzer and I, knew we would have to drive a strong race in order to make it up the field and we gave it our best effort.

The race didnt start too well as I struggled with the tire grip on the opening stint. We haven't figured out exactly why, but the first set of tires seemed to fall off the pace really quickly making the car very difficult to drive.

The team saw the struggle for pace in the opening stint so we cut the stint short and put Holzer in the car. We were very unlucky because 2 laps after we stopped, the safety car came out. This allowed many of the teams the chance to stop during the yellow flag causing us to lose alot of time. Although was lost time to a few of the top teams, we made a perfect pit stop and managed to move up two positions.

After the race was restarted, Holzer pushed hard and drove a strong stint keeping pace with the cars ahead. After a 40 min stint, he came in for the final pit stop of the race. His strong drive put us in position to make it further up the field as we made a second perfect and quick pitstop. This moved us up another position up to 5th position in the GT2 category.

I pushed hard in my final stint and fought hard to keep our top 5 position. The car was handling much better on the 2nd set of tires which allowed me to push hard and set much better lap times. A Ferrari was behind me pressuring me the entire final stint. I held him at bay and although he put alot of pressure on me, I managed to hold him off... It was only on the final lap that suddenly something went wrong...

My car began surging for fuel. I gave it my all to keep the Ferrari behind, but at the last corner, my car took a big fuel surge slowing my car all the way down and allowing the Ferrari to sneak by before the chequered flag. We finished our first race in 6th position.

Of course, I am not happy to lose a position in the final corner, but it was the first team working with Prospeed team this weekend and everyone gave it their all. It was a strong team effort and to fight for a top 5 position in our first race is quite promising. The team is highly motivated to improve on this and all eyes are aimed at the podium right now. It will not be an easy road getting there, but we will not aim for anything less than race wins and podiums.

My team mates, Richard Westbrook and Emmanuel Collard drove a strong race to win the race in the GT2 category. Both our results combined have given Prospeed Compeition the early lead in the team championship category.

I head back to Hong Kong for 2 days today and then head over to Beijing next weekend for the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia. 2 weeks from now I will be back in Europe in Adria, Italy just outside Venice for the second round of the FIA GT Championship...

More updates to come soon!

Darryl

We took to the track today for the first official free practice in the LKM/A-ha Coffee sponsored #61 Prospeed Porsche GT3 RSR at the Silverstone circuit.

We started the day off going through the car to make sure we were familiar with everything. Marco Holzer and myself spent the morning doing our seat fitting and working out our safety belts etc.. After we got all that organised, we began practicing our driver changes.

Driver changes are a key part of the FIA GT championship as gaining 10 seconds on the track is quite difficult, but losing 10 seconds in the pit stop is extremely easy!

The practice session didn't go as well as we wanted because we had hoped to be quicker...but on the opening few laps where the time had to be set on new tires, I wasn't quite familiar enough with the RSR on the Silverstone circuit and I was unable to set a quick enough time. I made improvements throughout the session but it will take alot of work to improve our position in the standings.

I started the session making a few setup changes, and passed the car off to Marco to finish off the session. He faces a big challenge this wknd as well as it is his first wknd in an RSR and he has a limited time to adapt to the car. We will work hard as a team and hope to close the gap to the leaders as much as we can on our debut weekend of the season in the FIA GT Championship.

Please see the link below as it is a video preview to the FIA GT race this wknd at Silverstone. Enjoy and I'll come back with qualifying updates from tomorrows session.

http://www.fiagt.com/scripts/anarchy_me ... lick=false