The 2016 GT Asia Series officially kicked into gear at Korea International Circuit, with the opening day of a two-day pre-season test at the South Korean venue. A fleet of new cars, some new teams and some old rivalries playing out across a day where it started warm and overcast, but finished under grey skies with persistent rain.
Ultimately China’s Franky Cheng claimed the fastest time of the day in the Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 he will share with JingZu Sun, the experienced Audi campaigner’s 2:06.010 a stunning 2.5-seconds faster than former Audi rival Adderly Fong, although Cheng was quick to point out that the new car was still missing some vital components.
“I’m very happy with the pace of the car, although we’re still missing some things that are held up at the airport which will have an impact, things like the homologated restrictor. We were running old tyres, so as to the true pace, we won’t know until the car is all sorted and set up for official opening practice on Friday.”
Behind Cheng, Bentley Team Absolute star Adderly Fong was next best, the reigning GT Asia #2 and two-time 2015 race winner was fast and consistent, with the big Bentley Continental perhaps presenting the closest benchmark for what we might expect come official practice, although still shy of Richards Lyons’ 2:06.667 pole time from last year.
The Bentley driver was making the most of his American GT3 experiences this year to help new team-mate Andrew Kim, the local driver doing an impressive job across the day, with Fong lamenting one scary moment just as the rain started to fall. “That was interesting,” was all he would say afterwards with a wry smile and more than a hint of concern in his eyes..
Singha Motorsport’s Carlo Van Dam ran to a pre-planned schedule and was – as expected – impressive, the TP12 Racing Team logging 23 laps across the day for the fourth fastest time overall, the experienced campaigner admitting that he would watch the emergence of the new Ferrari 488 GT3 with interest.
“Piti [Bhirombhakdi] elected not to run with the new car this year because we had a known product with the 458 – he was comfortable with it, the team was comfortable with it, and whilst we expect the new car [488] will be fast, it’s also brand new and there’s a number of unknowns, so our experience with what was a brand new car last year, will be a good platform to kick off a championship.”
Eliminating Cheng’s benchmark from the timesheets showed a very tight group of cars separated by a relatively small margin, with seven cars split by just a second – perhaps a true indication of the pace we might expect to see on Friday.
That group of cars consisted of three Bentleys, two new Phoenix Racing Audi R8s, a Ferrari 458 and the new FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini of Squadra Corse rising stars Andrea Amici (who did the bulk of the running on day one) and Edoardo Liberati.
Of the remaining cars, many were still finalising preparation of cars that had only just arrived from the factory, which included the two Craft-Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-Rs and the identical car of GruppeM Racing who have elected not to run in the pre-season test.
“We don’t want to put ourselves under any pressure to have to get the car out and running for the pre-season test, and risk missing something,” team-boss Alan Chin admitted. “The car literally arrived this morning, so we’re taking our time to do things methodically, and will use the three one-hour practice sessions on Friday to dial it in.”
Whilst all the GT3 cars were at the circuit for the opening day of the test, the Dilango Racing Lamborghini of Dilantha Malagamuwa and Armaan Ebrahim, and the True Vision Motorsports Porsche 991 Cup Car of Suttiluck Buncharoen remained in their garages, both those cars expected to turn their first laps on Friday.
Korea International Circuit, South Korea (9 May)
Official Testing Session#1 (9:30-12:00pm)
1. Franky Cheng (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:07.854
2. Adderly Fong (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:08.205
3. Richard Lyons (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:08.552
4. Carlo Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 2:08.652
5. Jonathan Venter (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:09.165
6. Marchy Lee (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:09.333
7. Davide Rizzo (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 2:09.581
8. Alex Yoong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:09.889
9. Mok Weng Sun (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GT3) – 2:13.006
10. Vutthikorn (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:15.400
11. Kantasak Kurisi (Singha Plan-B Motorsport Ferrari 458 Challenge) – 2:17.961
12. Andrea Amici/Edo Liberati (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3)
13. O’Young/Bhirombakdi (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R)
Official Testing Session#2 (2:00-6:00pm)
1. Franky Cheng (Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:06.010
2. Adderly Fong (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:08.526
3. Carlo Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3) – 2:08.560
4. Marchy Lee (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:08.652
5. Jonathan Venter (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:08.785
6. Andrea Amici (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) – 2:09.055
7. Andrea Palmer (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) – 2:09.387
8. Alex Yoong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 2:09.693
9. Davide Rizzo (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) – 2:10.193
10. Mok Weng Sun (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GT3) – 2:11.741
11. Kantasak Kurisi (Singha Plan-B Motorsport Ferrari 458 Challenge) – 2:14.784
12. Richard Lyons (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:27.309
13. O’Young/Bhirombakdi (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) – 2:29.544
All the action from the 2016 GT Asia Series will play out ‘live’ on Fox Sports Asia, and online. Details of the streams and the broadcast times will be available on the GT Asia Series website – www.gtasiaseries.com – and through social media; www.facebook.com/GTAsiaSeries will also post news, video clips, images and updates, and you can also get involved in the conversation on www.twitter.com/GTAsiaSeries
The GT Asia Series is sanctioned by the FIA as an International Series and is clearly recognised as the Region’s leading GT Championship. It is solely managed and promoted by Motorsport Asia Ltd and is backed by Michelin, KW Automotive, Motul, Race Room, Panta, YOFC and Tunewear.
