GT Asia: Top 10 Moments of Series 2015

Sport360 staff 12:30 31/12/2015
The Top 10 Moments in Season 2015 of GT Asia

1. Liu/Rizzo do it again in South Korea

The Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo combination surprised the entire GT Asia Series field at Korea International in 2014, taking victory in both races during the Series first ever visit to South Korea, the rookies surprising everyone with their speed. Despite Liu taking the fight all the way down to the wire in Macau at seasons end, everyone seemed surprised to see them dish out another win in South Korea, to leave the opening event of the 2015 season with a handy points lead, whilst pre-season favourites Clearwater Racing and Craft-Bamboo all suffered problems across the weekend.


2. Clearwater Racing ‘on fire’ in Okayama

Reigning GT Asia Series champion Mok Weng Sun said after Okayama that his season was done despite the services of factory WEC stars James Calado, Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander. Ultimately he was right, the catalyst for his comments was the fuel fire in the roll-around lap for round three at Okayama which ended their weekend on the spot and destroyed the #1 car’s chances of claiming another title. The damage to the car was significant, with the hard-working Clearwater Racing team rebuilding the rear of the car in the three-week break between Okayama and Fuji.


3. FFF Racing McLaren takes maiden victory at Okayama

Fu Songyang and Andrea Caldarelli unveiled a three-car McLaren 650S GT3 team ahead of the 2015 season with an impressive driver lineup that included former McLaren GT Asia Series campaigner Hiroshi Hamaguchi, former Formula One driver Tonio Liuzzi, and 2014 GT Asia Series front-runners Jiang Xin and Max Wiser. The trio of black FFF Racing Team by ACM McLaren’s looked fantastic on track and they showed they would be competitive with some solid results at South Korea before an emphatic victory by Hamaguchi and Liuzzi at Okayama in just their third event of the season.


4. An emotional Keita Sawa wins at home

After assisting good friend Mok Weng Sun to his third GT Asia Series crown in 2014, experienced Asian GT campaigner Keita Sawa joined the all new Bentley Team Absolute operation for the new season. Paired with rising star Adderly Fong in the #8 Bentley Continental GT3, the duo were unsurprisingly quick, claiming their first podium in South Korea. In Japan though, the Sawa/Fong combination was unstoppable claiming wins in both Okayama and Fuji in front of Sawa’s home fans, the emotional Japanese veteran having risen to the occasion with two of the best drives of his life.

Bentley Continental GT3 driver Keita Sawa of Japan in action

Bentley Continental GT3 driver Keita Sawa of Japan in action in front of his home fans


5. Bhirom Bhakdi prevails to win in Fuji

Thailand GT star Piti Bhirom Bhakdi made a couple of cameo appearances in the 2014 GT Asia Series and showed impressive pace in the Singha liveried Porsche. For 2015 he committed himself to the entire season of Asia’s leading GT category, engaging the services of experienced Dutch star Carlo Van Dam, the pair adopting a Ferrari 458 for the challenge.

With Van Dam committed elsewhere for the opening round in South Korea, Piti was joined by Japanese driver Naoki Yokomizo ahead of Van Dam’s return in Okayama, the experienced GT campaigner assisting the TP12 Racing team to second in the opening race, but it was the damp conditions of Fuji where the Thai team really stood tall.

During the opening race, Clearwater Racing’s Toni Vilander and Van Dam ran nose-to-tail for the opening stanza before Mok and Piti took the race down to the wire in testing damp conditions, the Thai driver prevailing despite immense pressure from the three-time champion to claim the team’s maiden GT Asia Series victory.


6. Liu/Rizzo claim victory in inaugural GT Asia Series enduro

Round four heralded the first ever endurance event for the GT Asia Series, with a three hour race scheduled for Sepang. Having missed the Fuji event due to business commitments, early season points leaders Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo were keen to get their championship back on track.

After qualifying second the pair were rarely far from the lead in conditions that changed regularly and forced teams to pit out of sequence for wet weather tyres, but once the weather cleared, it was the Shanghai-based BBT Ferrari team who emerged victorious, Liu and Rizzo putting themselves right back into the championship equation taking the win over Sawa/Fong and Piti/Van Dam.

7. Rod Salmon suffers huge crash at Shanghai

12-months prior to the Shanghai round of the 2015 series, Clearwater Racing’s Hiroshi Hamaguchi suffered the biggest crash of his career during final practice at Shanghai, destroying the points leading McLaren MP4-12C and effectively ending his title challenge.

Step forward 12-months, and reigning Australian GT Trophy Class (GTM) champion Rod Salmon suffered a similar fate in the FFF Racing Team by ACM McLaren 650S GT3 during race one [round eight] on the run down to turn one.

Suffering an intermittent electrical issue, the Australian was focused on resetting systems and getting the car sorted on the radio with his engineer when GTM class front-runner Kenneth Lim ranged up on the outside of the ailing McLaren heading into the braking zone at the end of the main straight. With limited visibility thanks to a broken side mirror, and unaware the Ferrari was beside him, Salmon moved across to take the racing line and just clipped the front of Lim, sending him sideways across the track and hard into the inside barrier.

The impact tore wheels off the car and pushed the front almost all the way to the windscreen, but incredibly – just as Hamaguchi had done 12-months prior – Salmon popped the door and walked away from the smoking McLaren uninjured, much to the relief of a number of drivers who had witnessed the incident.


8. Duncan Tappy claims maiden win at Buriram


After Macau was relegated to an ‘invitational’ race for 2015, Motorsport Asia went looking for a new venue to host the final round of the season, and the new Buriram International Circuit in Thailand emerged as the favourite, and what a popular event it was.

Few teams had seen the 4.554-kilometre circuit previously, but it didn’t take long for the series regulars to smash the standing lap record and push experienced Thailand GT star and former F1 driver, Tomas Enge to the limit.

Qualifying saw Bentley claim the advantage, with Tiger Racing’s 2015 recruit Duncan Tappy taking the top spot in Q1, and Adderly Fong pole in Q2, and whilst the challenges came thick and fast in race one from McLaren and Bentley rivals, it was Tappy – and new co-driver Benny Simonsen who was subbing for Jacky Yeung – who claimed a strong victory, the team backing up to claim fourth in race two, in the process moving Tappy to fifth in the championship.

9. Jerry Wang claims GTM title after late season battle with Gulf Racing JP

Hong Kong’s Jerry Wang joined the GT Asia Series for the first time in South Korea, as part of the experienced Absolute Racing team in an Audi R8 LMS GT3. He enjoyed a solid start to the season despite admitting he was coming to terms with the performance and characteristics of the R8, claiming back-to-back wins in South Korea before the return of 2014 sensation Takuma Aoki in Okayama.

Japanese Porsche enthusiast Hisashi Kunie also challenged for victory in South Korea, claiming second on both occasions, before shifting his focus to the outright class in Okayama. By Fuji though he was back in the Gulf Racing JP Porsche 991, and by Sepang, he enlisted the services of his GT3 class driver Dylan Derdaele to go after the GTM class title, claiming three wins in the final four races. By that stage though Wang had done enough, with a double-points win in Sepang alongside Australian GT star Warren Luff, and a podium finish in Shanghai giving him a strong points lead ahead of Thailand, the Audi driver claiming the title by 14 points over Kunie and Ferrari duo James Cai and Kenneth Lim.

10. Title decider goes down to the final race

Heading into the Shanghai round of the 2015 series, Bentley Team Absolute drivers Keita Sawa and Adderly Fong held the championship lead by three points over Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo, with Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Darryl O’Young just two points further back. By the close of the Shanghai round, O’Young emerged as the points leader, just four points up on the Bentley duo, with the BBT Ferrari pair just hanging on, 16 points back from the lead.

With the title within reach, O’Young needed a consistent run at Buriram during the series’ first ever visit to Thailand, and whilst practice looked strong, disaster struck in opening qualifying with O’Young making contact with GTM class title contender Dylan Derdaele early in the session, forcing the #99 VLT Aston Martin into the gravel with damage to the rear of the car.

With just a ten-minute break between sessions, it looked as if the car would be too badly damaged to get O’Young’s team-mate Daniel Lloyd out during Q2 to record a time, but that’s exactly what the experienced Craft-Bamboo team did, Lloyd with no time to get temperature into the tyres charging out pit lane with just minutes remaining to get one single flying lap, the Englishman putting it to good use to grab a front row start.

Starting from rear-of-field in race one, O’Young managed to avoid early contact to work his way forward early, before Lloyd continued the good work to claim fourth at the flag.

GT Asia Season 2015 - Top 10 Standings

Top 10 Standings

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