Archive 2010
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia – Rounds 11 & 12, Zhuhai Int'l Circuit on 5-7 November 2010Team Jebsen Celebrates Impressive End-of-Season Podium
For Team Jebsen, the final meeting of the 2010
Said 23-year-old Team Jebsen driver Rodolfo Avila: “It was a great weekend! It didn’t start well, but finished brilliantly – it can be like that sometimes. The team gave me a fantastic car, and it was important to me to give all our fans and guests a good time.”
With the weather turning unseasonably wet, Friday’s qualifying session saw the drizzle make track conditions tricky, and the right set-up crucial. Having gained plenty of experience over a very wet weekend in Shanghai last month, and having been second fastest in practice this weekend, Avila took to the track for qualifying brimming with confidence.
However, the team’s luck was about to change. Taking the
Avila had no choice but to start from the back of the grid for the first of the two 12-lap races of the weekend, but Team Jebsen rallied round and he lined up on the grid determined to make up as many places as possible.
As the lights went out, Avila began his charge and was already up to 14th when the Safety Car was called out for the first time following an incident which left two cars stranded. When racing resumed, so did Team Jebsen’s run through the field, until a second Safety Car suspension temporarily halted their progress.
With racing underway again, but the laps running out, Avila knew every place he could make up would improve his chances in Sunday’s race, and a superb final effort saw him climb to 7th by the flag: “We changed the gear box on Friday, and we started at the back on Saturday. The car was much better in the race and the set up felt good. The track was drying before the race, so we saved the wet tyres just in case it rained on Sunday. The Safety Car interruption was bad for me. It came out twice and cost me laps, or I could have been 4th or 5th.”
Given their recent success in the rain, Team Jebsen was hoping for a wet race for Sunday’s final
Starting from 7th on the grid, Avila got a superb start, and was up to 4th on the opening lap, going one better on lap 2 of the 12-lap race to take 3rd. He continued his charge, catching the 2nd place runner, and piling on the pressure. The tactic worked, with Avila rattling the more experienced driver into making a mistake and going off the track. However, a runner-up finish was far from assured when he himself came under pressure in the final few laps. But Avila’s mental stamina won the day and he held on to cross the line in second, and record his best finish of the season.
The
Said Avila, who will be racing a GT car in his home city for the second time in his career: “I know the Guia Circuit well, and I know it demands – and deserves – a great deal of respect. It is every drivers dream, with a combination of tricky twists and turns, and long, fast straights. It is unforgiving in the extreme, with virtually no run-offs meaning zero room for error. The
Background:
Team Jebsen is backed by the Jebsen Group. Established in 1895 in Hong Kong, the Group has since expanded its activities into a comprehensive business network throughout China, Taiwan and South Korea. Today, the Jebsen Group is structured around four strategic business units targeting the consumer, industrial, beverage and luxury sectors.
Jebsen is a name synonymous with
11/7/2010