A drag race to the line decided the first GT Asia race at Shanghai, with Anthony Liu making two bold moves in greasy conditions on the final lap to win the race for the BBT Ferrari team which fought through the field after starting eighth.
Finishing second after a valiant defensive drive was Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak in the #9 Absolute Bentley after his teammate Duncan Tappy took the lead during the first half of the race and put him in position to win. Third was the #6 Phoenix Racing Audi of Anthony Au and Alex Yoong.
The start of the race saw Yoong hold the lead from pole position, with Tappy’s Bentley and Franky Cheng’s Absolute Audi second and third.
In the opening laps, Yoong was unable to create much of a gap to the Bentley, and eventually had to give up the position when Tappy muscled his way past up the inside at Turn 1 just before the leaders pitted. Behind, Davide Rizzo was moving up the order in the winning BBT 488, and held sixth spot before handing over to Liu.
When the round of stops was over, the Bentley held the lead, with the #6 Audi of Anthony Au second, followed by the Jingzu Sun’s Absolute Audi third.
As the race began to enter its closing stages, the race was on for the lead, with Au catching Inthraphuvasak by around a second per lap to close the gap to just a few tenths, with Liu charging through the field to within a few seconds of the top two from seventh spot.
Also making ground was the eventual fourth-place finishing Audi of Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong, which started dead last after gearbox issues during Qualifying. Lee thrived in the changing conditions, as the weather went from 40-degree heat to a sudden downpour at the end. In the closing laps Lee made a move on Matthew Solomon’s AAI Mercedes which retired on the penultimate tour to secure fifth in the frantic run to the checkered flag.
But the story was Liu’s drive, as he made the pass on Au at Turn 8 to get second before lining up Inthraphuvasak heading down the back straight, selling him the dummy at the final turn and beating him to the line.
“I told my engineer that rain would be good for us after Qualifying,” commented Liu after the race.
“I saw the rain drops come down, and I knew we were going to win,” added Rizzo.
Finishing fifth in the race was the championship-leading FFF Lamborghini of Eduardo Liberati and Andrea Amici which managed to move up the order from tenth in the wet. Salvaging a top five finish still wasn’t good enough though for the Fuji winners, as the BBT duo are now level with them in the points tally.
Kiwi Jono Lester fought through from 13th to an 8th place finish in the GruppeM Porsche.
Tomorrow’s race is set to begin at 14:00 local time in Shanghai, China.
