Beijing Win for Absolute Sets Up Shanghai Showdown
Photo: GT World Challenge Asia
Absolute Racing duo Alessandro Ghiretti and Huang Ruohan scored victory in Sunday’s GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS race on the streets of Beijing to set up a final-round showdown with Lu Wei at Shanghai at the end of the month.
At the wheel of their No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, Ghiretti and Huang converted pole into their first win since the opening round of the year at Sepang to reignite their title challenge, as Origine Motorsport pair Lu and Loek Hartog finished second.
It means Lu, who failed to score in the first race after hitting the wall, will head to the finale in Shanghai with five points in hand over Ghiretti and Huang.
Victory in the opening race on Saturday went to Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Liu Kaishun and GTWC Asia debutant Takuro Shinohara.
Liu scored pole and was untroubled at the head of the field for the opening stint, and after the driver changes PONOS Racing SUPER GT driver Shinohara’s path to a debut win was made even more straightforward when the Phantom Global Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Yu Kuai and Congfu Cheng was penalized for speeding under full course yellow.
That demoted Yu from second and instead promoted the 5ZIGEN Nissan NISMO GT-R GT3 that Atsushi Miyake took over from Takayuki Aoki, with Miyake having earlier passed Akash Nandy’s Absolute Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.
That was how the podium order remained as Nandy held off the Porsches of Ayhancan Guven, sharing the No. 37 Phantom Global entry with Anthony Liu, and Ghiretti.
It was Ghiretti that led the field to green in Sunday’s race after the Frenchman took pole, which followed an overnight rebuild for the No. 911 machine by Absolute as a result of the car suffering a fire at the end of the Bronze test on Friday evening.
There was a safety car period almost immediately as contact between Miyake and the Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Jesse Krohn sent the Nissan piling into the barriers at Turn 8, by which time Brendon Leitch had grabbed the lead in his Harmony Ferrari.
Ghiretti meanwhile had fallen to third behind Hartog in the Origine Porsche, but was able to repass shortly after the race returned to green at Turn 3.
The safety car made a second appearance after Aaron Lim crashed his Absolute Porsche, with Leitch’s co-driver Song Jiajun emerging from the driver changes with the lead, but he was powerless to hold off either Huang or Lu when the caution period ended.
Lu couldn’t keep up with Huang, who pulled clear to the tune of 3.919 seconds.
The Audi of Cheng finished second on the road after a string of passes on slower Am drivers, but a five-second penalty imposed for going too slowly in the pit lane to fulfil the minimum pit stop time put Lu and Hartog back to second in the final results.
Cheng and co-driver Yu still claimed third, and despite not scoring in the opener still head to Shanghai with a chance of the title on 98 points, 26 behind Lu.
Another title contender, Phantom Global’s Liu, was likewise penalized after making contact with the second Audi of ‘Andres Pato’ (Andrew Haryanto) in the closing stages while the pair were battling for fourth, leaving Pato in the tire barrier.
That demoted Liu and Guven to 14th, leaving Liu facing a deficit of 28 points, while the only other driver still in contention for the title heading to Shanghai is namesake Liu Kaishun, who was fourth together with Shinohara in the finale, a further point back.
As well as the overall title, the Pro-Am, Silver, Silver-Am and Am Cups all remain open ahead of the season finale, but one prize that was sealed in Beijing was the China Cup, which was decided in favor of Cheng and Yu.
GTWC Asia’s Shanghai title decider will be held on Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
Source: Sports Car 365