It was another hot Pattaya afternoon as the cars lined up on the grid for Round 9 of the Asian Touring Car Series where Jack Lemvard sealed the win for the Asia Cup Championship today.
The Thai driver drove a perfect weekend race to clinch the title three races ahead of the season closer. Lemvard was ecstatic with the result and fought hard for the win after lining up in sixth on the grid from the reverse grid order. The Liqui Moly Team Engstler driver had to fight his way through a five way battle ahead of him before finally passing the car of Malaysian Eric Yeo on lap 3 and then the cars of Adrian Henry D’Silva and Harry Chai at the end of the lap.
Then for the next two laps Lemvard played catch up to Chen Jun San who had managed to find his way past the trio almost at the start of the race. By lap five Lemvard was poised to make his move and drove nose to tail with Chen at the end of the lap and by the start/finish straight Lemvard powered on to take the lead at the end of turn 1.
“Thank you to the team again for the great work on the car. It has been a perfect weekend for us. Now we don’t even have to race the last two races to win the Championship, but of course we wouldn’t do that to the sponsors” said Lemvard with a laugh.
“I started in sixth today and it was really crazy. The first four to five cars were fighting it out and I think Sun managed to get ahead of the pack. I tried to catch everyone but it was really difficult because they were fighting. I tried inside but they closed the door then I managed to pass Eric around the first corner then two more cars then at the next two laps I caught Sun and passed him as well. After that I continued to lead. It was really tough and it was really hot out there and with no power steering it was hard on the shoulders”.
Taiwanese driver Chen crossed the line in second to claim his second podium for Buddy Club AAI. “Compared to the last race, this was more fun for me. At the start of the race it was quite interesting, there were about five to six cars in front of me and they were fighting each other. I had to find ways to overtake them so it was quite fun and after that I just tried to push myself at every lap, it was a great race and I am very happy”.
After having a good start, Alvaro Mourato maintained a steady pace to claim third in Division 1. “I had a pretty good start and from there I just kept my pace and position to the end of the race”.
After their great battle at the start of the race, the Division 2 drivers, Yeo, D’Silva, Chai, Danny Stacy Chau and Man Ting Yu continued to entertain the crowd with their battle. On lap six, Chai, who was then pushing D’Silva made a mistake, spun and drove onto the grass. Danny Chau and Man managed to narrowly avoid running into Chai who then managed to catch his car to rejoin the race behind Man.
By lap seven, Chai was behind Danny Chau who was pursuing D’Silva when D’Silva suddenly lost power, began to coast to the side, ending his race.
In the end, Yeo took the win for Division 2 followed by Danny Chau and Chai.
Prepared by Motorsport Asia Ltd
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