Audi R8 LMS Cup Press Release
· Fong heads to season finale with two point lead over Marchy Lee
· Podium for K.O. You on series debut
· Amateur Cup victory for Au keeps title chase alive
Shanghai, October 28, 2012 – The battle for both the inaugural Audi R8 LMS Cup and the Amateur Cup titles will go right down to the wire in Shanghai next month after KLM Team’s Adderly Fong of Hong Kong took victory in Round 10, leapfrogging Audi Ultra’s Marchy Lee, who finished second, to the top of the leaderboard. The two rounds were held in support of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Audi Korea made a successful series debut with talented driver K.O. You finishing on the podium in just his second Audi R8 LMS Cup outing. Sun Zheng of Team Erdos Xinan also had a good outing, crossing the line in fourth.
Alex Au of AK Racing took his third Amateur Cup victory of the season so far, keeping his title aspirations alive with just two races to go. Second in the category was Hugues Ripert of Spark Motorsport, now fourth in the standings one point ahead of lady driver Zhang Ran of Audi Castrol who rounded out the amateur podium.
Winner of Round 9, Darryl O’Young, making his series debut this weekend as stand-in for Malaysia’s Alex Yoong, had an unlucky outing after picking up a puncture and retiring. The same fate befell Amateur Cup points leader Jeffrey Lee.
In foggy conditions O’Young got away well from pole, and immediately set about pulling a gap from the hard-charging Fong, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap four. Marchy Lee’s strategy was to keep the pair in his sights, and then push hard mid-way through the 16-lap race.
Team Betterlife’s Wang Jian Wei also got away well, getting by K.O. You at the start, but then relinquishing the position to the Korean on the next lap. What was to be a thrilling, race-long duel between Wang and David Zhu of Team Zhe Jiang Aotong then commenced. Zhu dived past Wang on lap four, and the chase was on.
O’Young, meanwhile, had managed to pull a gap from Fong of 1.490 seconds by the end of lap seven but, just as Marchy Lee began his planned charge, it was game over for the race leader when debris on the track destroyed his rear tyre.
Less than a second separated title rivals Fong and Marchy by the end of lap nine, with the latter rapidly homing in on his prey. To maximize his chances of catching – and passing – Fong, Marchy switched off his traction control to give him extra power out of the corners. Suddenly, Marchy spun and, although he continued, his error had given Fong an unassailable lead.
As Fong headed to the finish and Marchy conceded defeat, the battle between Zhu and Wang in fifth and sixth was raging. Zhu had expertly kept Wang at bay lap after lap, but as the pair began the penultimate lap, crossing the start/finish line wheel-to-wheel, the battle intensified. A monumental effort just metres from the chequered flag saw Wang finally get by and sail home in fifth.
Despite retiring from the second race, it was a successful weekend for O’Young, who had taken pole position in qualifying and an emphatic victory in his debut Audi R8 LMS Cup race in Round 9, where he was followed across the line by Marchy after the Audi Ultra made an audacious move on rival Fong in the run to the flag. Marchy was later penalized by the Race Stewards and demoted to third. Like O’Young, Jeffrey Lee took pole in the Amateur Cup and followed that up with a resounding victory in Round 9.
The season finale of the inaugural Audi R8 LMS Cup will be held from November 9-11 at the Shanghai Sportscar Champions Festival, where the overall title will be decided between Fong and Marchy Lee, although Yoong still has a mathematical chance of winning the championship. For the Amateur Cup honours, Au will have a mountain to climb if he is to snatch the title from Jeffrey Lee. The stage is set for a dramatic finale to what has been a spectacular debut season for the Audi R8 LMS Cup.
Quotes after Round 10:
Adderly Fong (KLM Team)
“Yesterday I was chasing Darryl quite hard, so I was struggling a bit with my rear grip today. It did help that it was cold out there today. For the championship, it's nice to be on top but Marchy is quick and Alex is coming back next time so it's not going to be easy.”
Marchy Lee (Audi Ultra)
“I have to say that this was a very interesting weekend for me. At the beginning today I knew that Darryl and Adderly would be using their tyres more than me so early in the race I conserved my tyres and then, when I knew I had better tyres than them, I tried to catch up.
I wanted to take a bit of a risk so I turned off my ASR to try and overtake Adderly, but I may have been a bit hasty because I went out of the turn quite fast so I failed in my attempt. Second in the championship is quite okay and, with one last weekend to go, I'm actually relieved from the pressure and now the pressure is on Adderly. The championship is wide open.”
K.O. You (Audi Korea)
"I really appreciate the car that Audi has made. As the race went on, I was really impressed by the performance of the car and I think - this is what a racing car should be like! I am very happy to be on the podium this weekend on my first time in the Audi R8 LMS Cup. I really want to be in the championship next year where I think I can be competitive with the other drivers.”
Alex Au (AK Racing)
"I think going for the championship is too ambitious. Jeffrey has been consistently quicker than me this season but next time, with more practice time, I hope to be in the mix with the dealer drivers and finish overall sixth or seventh. I would be happy with that. But it's good if Jeffrey has to worry about his championship a little - that would be a good result for me.”
Rene Koneberg (Director of Audi Sport customer racing China)
“We have seen a lot of position changes over the weekend, which demonstrates the competitiveness of the Audi R8 LMS Cup. It has been an excellent opportunity for our drivers to meet those from Audi Sport at this weekend’s prestigious FIA World Endurance Championship meeting.”
Audi R8 LMS Cup Official Website at: www.audir8lmscup.com
Round 10 – Results
Pos | Comp No | Name | Class | Entrant | Time |
1 | 68 | Adderly FONG (HKG) | KLM Team | 34:10.783 | |
2 | 1 | Marchy LEE (HKG) | Audi Ultra | +10.714 | |
3 | 55 | Kyoung-Ouk YOU (KOR) | Team Korea | +15.395 | |
4 | 33 | SUN Zheng (CHN) | Team Erdos Xinan | +18.746 | |
5 | 9 | WANG Jian Wei (CHN) | Team Betterlife | +29.164 | |
6 | 6 | David ZHU (CHN) | Team Zhe Jiang Aotong | +29.488 | |
7 | 23 | Alex AU (HKG) | Am | AK Racing | +55.465 |
8 | 77 | SUN Chao (CHN) | P D GROUP Team | +56.504 | |
9 | 3 | Hugues RIPERT (HKG) | Am | Spark Motorsport | +1:49.729 |
10 | 66 | ZHANG Ran (CHN) | Am | Audi Castrol | +2:03.814 |
11 | 99 | Anthony CHAN (HKG) | Team Chengdu New Elements | +2:07.804 | |
12 | 13 | Adrian FU (HKG) | Am | FuSpeed Racing | 1 Lap |
13 | 88 | Dr. FENG Derui | Am | Team Audi R8 LMS Cup | 1 Lap |
DNF | 8 | Darryl O’YOUNG (HKG) | Audi GQ | - | |
DNF | 7 | Jeffrey LEE (TPE) | Am | Pauian Archiland J-Fly Racing | - |
DNS | 75 | Kevin CHEN (USA) | J-Fly Racing Team | - |
(AM) Amateur Cup Competitor
Fastest Lap: Darryl O’Young/Audi GQ/2:07.309/154.1kph
Overall Classification (top 5)
1 | Adderly FONG (HKG) | 181 |
2 | Marchy LEE (HKG) | 179 |
3 | Alex YOONG (MAS) | 136 |
4 | SUN Zheng (CHN) | 105 |
5 | Jeffrey LEE (TPE) | 69 |
Amateur Cup Classification (top 5)
1 | Jeffrey LEE (TPE) | 154 |
2 | Alex AU (HKG) | 126 |
3 | Aaron KWOK (HKG) | 99 |
4 | Hugues RIPERT (HKG) | 97 |
5 | ZHANG Ran (CHN) | 96 |
No comments:
Post a Comment