Archive 2010
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, September 25-26, 2010 Results – Round 8Second Brilliant Victory Earns Baird Championship Lead
SC Global Racing’s Craig Baird took his second career
Baird’s brilliant pole-to-flag run saw him hold off a spirited challenge from Red Bull Racing’s Marchy Lee as the Marina Bay street circuit took its toll on the Hong Kong racer’s tyres. Third across the line was LKM Racing Team’s Darryl O’Young, who had started alongside Baird on the grid for the start of the second race of the
Menzel, who had started from 13th on the grid after a tyre choice gamble in Round 7 failed to pay off, fought his way through the field to finish fourth, but ran out of to time to seriously challenge for the podium.
Team
Said Baird: "The car was really, really good today. Marchy closed in fast, and I let him come as I thought he’d burn his tyres. I could see he was driving quite aggressively. I stuck to the game plan and it worked. It was easier in the dry, but I’m very, very happy with this – there are so many variables. You win one race and anything can happen in the next one. My guys worked so hard, as they found the clutch was broken just before the race, so we only just made it. My two Kiwi mechanics have been great, so it’s my shout tonight!"
Lee, who set the fastest lap of the race, was ecstatic, despite not clinching the win: "The start was OK, and then I put pressure on Darryl. Today I really, really pushed hard as I knew I had the speed. Perhaps I rushed a bit too much. I was trying to calculate (tyre wear). I locked up, and the tyres were completely gone after that. Craig and I had the same pace, but I couldn’t catch him at the end."
Mok was delighted with his win, which was far from easy having struggled with tyre pressure initially: "The track was a lot quicker today – and a lot hotter! Within two laps, Menzel was right behind me, and after that I just concentrated in pulling a gap from Ringo and Philip. It was a great weekend though, especially to win two races in front of my family."
Off the line, Baird led the pack, but faced a serious challenge from O’Young in the early stages. He survived to hold the lead, and soon the two Hong Kong drivers were locked in an intense battle behind him. By the end of the opening lap, Menzel had already climbed to sixth, and was heading for Mok, taking him on the following lap.
O’Young couldn’t escape the attentions of Lee, who was intent on getting by, while Baird pulled out a gap at the front. Menzel began closing on Team Jebsen’s Rodolfo Avila who was running in fourth.
Lee finally found a way past O’Young on lap five, and began the charge to Baird, cutting the New Zealanders lead by the following lap to just two hundredths of a second, before dropping back as his tyres began to wear. Menzel got by Avila, who had lost a front splitter, just two laps from the flag.
Baird took his second victory of the weekend with a margin of more than two seconds, the win giving him a margin of four points at the top of the championship leaderboard. Lee lies third, ten points behind Menzel, and the championship race is now wide open with four rounds still to go of the 2010 season.
Mok now leads the Class B category by an impressive 55points from Chong, with Francis Tjia of OpenRoad Racing just six points behind him in third.
With two superb races, run under very different track conditions on a highly-challenging street circuit, the
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9/27/2010