Last year’s GT Asia champions FFF Racing by ACM, supported by Squadra Corse, fielded two Lamborghini Huracan GT3 cars this weekend (8-9 April, 2017) in the newly formed version of Asia’s premier GT Racing Series.
Proudly sporting numbers 1 and 2 on the cars as last year’s leading GT team FFF Racing entered cars for the Silver/Silver pairing of Alberto Di Folco and Aidan Read – who at 21 and 18 years old respectively are the youngest GT3 pairing of any GT3 Lamborghini team racing in the world this year – and a Pro/Am car for Chinese pairing Ho Pin Tung and Zhu Junhan.
As part of a strong 30 car field, that included a number of new manufacturers brands and some other top line drivers, the Chinese team used its winning experience and mentality to compete for a second successive title racing GT3 cars in Asia. The weekend however, as in the first round last year, proved to be one that would see the team getting to grips with the cars and its new driver pairings as part of a learning curve to achieve the best results.
Mr Fu, Team Owner stated that Sepang is a circuit he knows well as he has raced there on several occasions and knows how difficult the conditions can be so is delighted that our young drivers have started there Asian Super Trofeo campaign with a podium.
The weekends format of two drivers sharing a one hour race, with each taking a turn to start the race and qualify the car, proved at times tough as an interrupted qualifying session saw Tung the best placed qualifier with a fourth start for race two.
Race one was soon interrupted by a start line crash that brought out the Safety Sar and at the restart both novice GT3 drivers did well to hold their respective positions before handing over to the more experienced partners. Each pushing to the flag but was unable to break into the points scoring positions overall, but did however pick up some valuable class points.
Sunday’s race proved to be a much more successful campaign the Di Folco/Read pairing in car #1 Lamborghini. Di Folco made a great start from 14th to run eighth on lap one and handed over to Read at the mid-point. Read continued the progress, bringing the car home in sixth overall, which was fourth in class. The result also leaves the pairing fourth in the Silver/Silver standings.
The #2 car fared less well as Tung starting fourth but contact with another car in the first corner melee dropped him to the midfield before being forced to retire to the pits towards the end of the race.
“I think getting the car home in sixth position today, the leading Lamborghini GT3 in the field, was the best we could have hoped for today,” stated FFF Racing Team Owner Sean Fu Songyang. “The team and the drivers put in a lot of work this weekend to improve the car and in race two especially showed well.
“We move on to the next round in Thailand optimistic that we can push further up the results with what we have learned and the gains we have made here in Malaysia.”
Round two of the six round championship now heads to Buriram in Northern Thailand on 20-21 May.
