It was an action packed Round 7 of the Asian Touring Car Series where current Championship leader, Jack Lemvard ended a perfect weekend for Liqui Moly Team Engstler claiming the win and further extending his championship lead.
At the start, the six leading drivers went into the turn at almost the same time, with Man Ting Yu who started in pole, maintained his lead out of the turn followed closely by Adrian Henry D’Silva, Eric Yeo, Danny Stacy Chau, Harry Chai and Lemvard.
D’Silva and Yeo went into the left hander of turn 2, they were side by side and touched. D’Silva lost out as he spun and stopped lengthwise across the track, leaving Danny Chau to dive into the gravel to avoid him leaving Chai and George Ong narrowly escaping the melee and overtaking him.
For the next four laps, Danny Chau played catch up to Ong, and finally took the Singaporean on lap seven. But luck was not on Ong’s side as he suffered from transmission problems and had to park the car at the pit exit by the start of lap 11.
Up ahead, Lemvard had already opened up a gap to Chai in second and Yeo in third followed by Man and Danny Chau. The positions remained until the end of the race.
During the Post Race Press Conference, Lemvard recollected the race “I started the race sixth and went up to first by the end of the first lap. The first turn was really hectic, everyone cut across for the inside and then at the second corner, Adrian spun and Danny had to avoid and went off into the gravel. I had to brake really hard, I almost hit Adrian. After that I managed to pass everyone to gain the lead.
“Towards the end, I was just saving my tyres. I did not want to make any mistake when I am leading, it would have looked really bad” he ended with a laugh.
For Chai, the first turn was the most interesting for him in his clean race “I started in fifth and followed behind Eric, then it became messy in front of me. I managed to avoid Adrian’s car and then I had to catch up to Eric in the next few laps. I carried more speed than him so eventually I managed to overtake him” said the elated Malaysian.
A delighted Yeo said “First I’d like to thank my team for getting my bumper fixed after yesterday’s race.
“I started in third on the grid and has a good start. As we went to turn 1, I was alongside Adrian. He stayed on the inside while I was outside into turn 2 and that’s when we touched, that was when Adrian spun off. After that I just concentrated on the front with Man Ting Yu. Then on about lap 6, Harry managed to overtake me and I then managed to make a move on Man to take third”.
For Man, finishing fourth was a great belated Birthday gift and jokingly said “I’m really lucky to have started in pole position, otherwise I would not have been able to lead the race”.
A troubled Frank Yee finally completed his first race. The Hong Kong driver was troubled from the start of the season but managed to finish his first race today. “For us, we are in the developmental program in the team. Usually, we will need about one to two years to slowly improve the car. So for us, we develop the car and although we may face more problems we target to improve. We get a satisfaction out of a good race weekend”.
Prepared by Motorsport Asia Ltd
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