Archive 2010

Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, September 25-26, 2010 Qualifying – Round 7Reigning Championship Tops Singapore Qualifying

Reigning Porsche Carrera Cup Asia champion, Christian Menzel of Team StarChase took a brilliant pole position today on a wet Marina Bay street circuit. Starting the first of two Porsche SC Global Carrera Cup Asia races this weekend alongside the German on the grid will be SC Global Racing ace Craig Baird of New Zealand, after former champion Darryl O’Young had his best time disallowed for cutting a chicane.

FIA World Touring Car driver O’Young, of Hong Kong, will start from the second row, alongside fellow countryman Marchy Lee of Red Bull Racing. Team Jebsen’s Rodolfo Avila of Macau, the youngest driver in the 23-strong field, and Mok Weng Sun of Team PSC Racing, quickest of the Class B drivers and current category points leader, will make up the third row for start of the 12 lap race.

With the earlier heavy rain easing off in time for the start of the 30-minute qualifying session, the track was still holding a considerable amount of water, and the session was declared wet.

As the field picked their way around the circuit initially, it was Menzel who was first to set a quick time, taking provisional pole a third of the way into the session, with O’Young close behind on the timing sheets.

After tyre changes mid-way through, Menzel, Baird and O’Young were separated by less than half a second, and from there the excitement began to build. With the track starting to dry, Baird put in a scorching lap to come with just one thousandths of a second of Menzel.

O’Young met the challenge by being the first to lap in less than 2 minutes 39 seconds, grabbing provisional pole from Menzel and, although the German immediately bettered his time, he was still six thousandths off the LKM Racing Team driver. Not to be outdone, Menzel showed why he is champion, grabbing pole position with a stunning lap of 2:38.455.

Mok led the Class B field from start to finish, with Singapore’s Ringo Chong of Team Kangshun second fastest in the non-professional category. Third fastest was Jeffrey Lee of Pauian Archiland Team.

Said Menzel: "Today it’s good to be again on pole. Credit to the team for changing the tyres to the other rain set – it was a big step forward, and I had a good lap. There was a lot of water – small rivers and small seas! The road markings also make it very difficult. I was pushing about 99%, as in some areas I didn’t risk 100% due to the short time between this qualifying and the race. With the points gap (I have), I can’t risk too much. I’m in a confident position to relax… but I will win!"

Baird, meanwhile, had elected for more uninterrupted track time over new tyres during the session, given the constantly-changing track conditions: "It was a hard session. There are different ways of approach. With hindsight, maybe a second set would have been an advantage. Perhaps I should have started with yesterday’s set and had a new one, but it was my decision. I thought with the changing conditions, more track time was better. The big thing was completing the session. I thought if I knocked a corner off, we only had a short time until the race. The conditions were like moving goal posts, every lap was different."

Supporting the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia are two of the most recognised names in international motorsport, Mobil1 and Michelin. Mobil and Porsche have been partners since 1996. Close co-operation in research and development has led to every new Porsche engine being filled with Mobil1 high-performance lubricant. Porsche Carrera Cup Asia drivers also have the advantage of racing on cutting-edge tyres supplied by series partner Michelin. The consistent performance and leading technology of Michelin tyres constantly improve the performance of many teams in international motorsport. The partnership between Michelin and the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia has emerged from a worldwide agreement signed between Porsche AG and the Michelin group.

The Porsche Carrera Cup Asia is organised and promoted by Malaysian based Motorsport Asia Ltd.

 

9/26/2010