Audi R8 LMS Cup Press Release
· Fong heads to season finale with two point lead over Marchy Lee
· Podium for K.O. You on series debut
· Amateur Cup victory for Au keeps title chase alive
Shanghai, October 28, 2012 – The battle for both the inaugural Audi R8 LMS Cup
and the Amateur Cup titles will go right down to the wire in Shanghai next
month after KLM Team’s Adderly Fong of Hong Kong took victory in Round 10,
leapfrogging Audi Ultra’s Marchy Lee, who finished second, to the top of the
leaderboard. The two rounds were held in support of the FIA World
Endurance Championship (WEC) at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Audi Korea made a successful series debut with talented driver K.O. You
finishing on the podium in just his second Audi R8 LMS Cup outing. Sun
Zheng of Team Erdos Xinan also had a good outing, crossing the line in fourth.
Alex Au of AK Racing took his third Amateur Cup victory of the season so
far, keeping his title aspirations alive with just two races to go.
Second in the category was Hugues Ripert of Spark Motorsport, now fourth in the
standings one point ahead of lady driver Zhang Ran of Audi Castrol who rounded
out the amateur podium.
Winner of Round 9, Darryl O’Young, making his series debut this weekend
as stand-in for Malaysia’s Alex Yoong, had an unlucky outing after picking up a
puncture and retiring. The same fate befell Amateur Cup points leader
Jeffrey Lee.
In foggy conditions O’Young got away well from pole, and immediately set
about pulling a gap from the hard-charging Fong, setting the fastest lap of the
race on lap four. Marchy Lee’s strategy was to keep the pair in his
sights, and then push hard mid-way through the 16-lap race.
Team Betterlife’s Wang Jian Wei also got away well, getting by K.O. You
at the start, but then relinquishing the position to the Korean on the next
lap. What was to be a thrilling, race-long duel between Wang and David
Zhu of Team Zhe Jiang Aotong then commenced. Zhu dived past Wang on lap
four, and the chase was on.
O’Young, meanwhile, had managed to pull a gap from Fong of 1.490 seconds
by the end of lap seven but, just as Marchy Lee began his planned charge, it
was game over for the race leader when debris on the track destroyed his rear
tyre.
Less than a second separated title rivals Fong and Marchy by the end of
lap nine, with the latter rapidly homing in on his prey. To maximize his
chances of catching – and passing – Fong, Marchy switched off his traction
control to give him extra power out of the corners. Suddenly, Marchy spun
and, although he continued, his error had given Fong an unassailable lead.
As Fong headed to the finish and Marchy conceded defeat, the battle
between Zhu and Wang in fifth and sixth was raging. Zhu had expertly kept
Wang at bay lap after lap, but as the pair began the penultimate lap, crossing
the start/finish line wheel-to-wheel, the battle intensified. A
monumental effort just metres from the chequered flag saw Wang finally get by
and sail home in fifth.
Despite retiring from the second race, it was a successful weekend for
O’Young, who had taken pole position in qualifying and an emphatic victory in
his debut Audi R8 LMS Cup race in Round 9, where he was followed across the
line by Marchy after the Audi Ultra made an audacious move on rival Fong in the
run to the flag. Marchy was later penalized by the Race Stewards and demoted
to third. Like O’Young, Jeffrey Lee took pole in the Amateur Cup and
followed that up with a resounding victory in Round 9.
The season finale of the inaugural Audi R8 LMS Cup will be held from
November 9-11 at the Shanghai Sportscar Champions Festival, where the overall
title will be decided between Fong and Marchy Lee, although Yoong still has a
mathematical chance of winning the championship. For the Amateur Cup honours,
Au will have a mountain to climb if he is to snatch the title from Jeffrey
Lee. The stage is set for a dramatic finale to what has been a
spectacular debut season for the Audi R8 LMS Cup.
Quotes after Round 10:
Adderly Fong (KLM Team)
“Yesterday I was chasing
Darryl quite hard, so I was struggling a bit with my rear grip today. It did
help that it was cold out there today. For the championship, it's nice to
be on top but Marchy is quick and Alex is coming back next time so it's not
going to be easy.”
Marchy Lee (Audi Ultra)
“I have to say that this was a very interesting weekend
for me. At the beginning today I knew that Darryl and Adderly would be
using their tyres more than me so early in the race I conserved my tyres and
then, when I knew I had better tyres than them, I tried to catch up.
I wanted to take a bit of a risk so I turned off my
ASR to try and overtake Adderly, but I may have been a bit hasty because I went
out of the turn quite fast so I failed in my attempt. Second in the
championship is quite okay and, with one last weekend to go, I'm actually relieved
from the pressure and now the pressure is on Adderly. The championship is wide
open.”
K.O. You (Audi Korea)
"I really appreciate the car that Audi has
made. As the race went on, I was really impressed by the performance of the car
and I think - this is what a racing car should be like! I am very happy to be
on the podium this weekend on my first time in the Audi R8 LMS Cup. I
really want to be in the championship next year where I think I can be
competitive with the other drivers.”
Alex Au (AK Racing)
"I think going for the championship is too
ambitious. Jeffrey has been consistently quicker than me this season but next
time, with more practice time, I hope to be in the mix with the dealer drivers
and finish overall sixth or seventh. I would be happy with that. But it's
good if Jeffrey has to worry about his championship a little - that would be a
good result for me.”
Rene Koneberg (Director of Audi Sport customer
racing China)
“We have seen a lot of position changes over the weekend, which
demonstrates the competitiveness of the Audi R8 LMS Cup. It has been an
excellent opportunity for our drivers to meet those from Audi Sport at this
weekend’s prestigious FIA World Endurance Championship meeting.”
Audi R8 LMS Cup
Official Website at: www.audir8lmscup.com
Round 10 – Results
Pos
|
Comp No
|
Name
|
Class
|
Entrant
|
Time
|
1
|
68
|
Adderly FONG (HKG)
|
KLM Team
|
34:10.783
|
|
2
|
1
|
Marchy LEE (HKG)
|
Audi Ultra
|
+10.714
|
|
3
|
55
|
Kyoung-Ouk YOU (KOR)
|
Team Korea
|
+15.395
|
|
4
|
33
|
SUN Zheng (CHN)
|
Team Erdos Xinan
|
+18.746
|
|
5
|
9
|
WANG Jian Wei (CHN)
|
Team Betterlife
|
+29.164
|
|
6
|
6
|
David ZHU (CHN)
|
Team Zhe Jiang Aotong
|
+29.488
|
|
7
|
23
|
Alex AU (HKG)
|
Am
|
AK Racing
|
+55.465
|
8
|
77
|
SUN Chao (CHN)
|
P D GROUP Team
|
+56.504
|
|
9
|
3
|
Hugues RIPERT (HKG)
|
Am
|
Spark Motorsport
|
+1:49.729
|
10
|
66
|
ZHANG Ran (CHN)
|
Am
|
Audi Castrol
|
+2:03.814
|
11
|
99
|
Anthony CHAN (HKG)
|
Team Chengdu New Elements
|
+2:07.804
|
|
12
|
13
|
Adrian FU (HKG)
|
Am
|
FuSpeed Racing
|
1 Lap
|
13
|
88
|
Dr. FENG Derui
|
Am
|
Team Audi R8 LMS Cup
|
1 Lap
|
DNF
|
8
|
Darryl O’YOUNG (HKG)
|
Audi GQ
|
-
|
|
DNF
|
7
|
Jeffrey LEE (TPE)
|
Am
|
Pauian Archiland J-Fly Racing
|
-
|
DNS
|
75
|
Kevin CHEN (USA)
|
J-Fly Racing Team
|
-
|
(AM) Amateur Cup Competitor
Fastest Lap: Darryl O’Young/Audi GQ/2:07.309/154.1kph
Overall
Classification (top 5)
1
|
Adderly FONG
(HKG)
|
181
|
2
|
Marchy LEE (HKG)
|
179
|
3
|
Alex YOONG (MAS)
|
136
|
4
|
SUN Zheng (CHN)
|
105
|
5
|
Jeffrey LEE (TPE)
|
69
|
Amateur Cup
Classification (top 5)
1
|
Jeffrey LEE (TPE)
|
154
|
2
|
Alex AU (HKG)
|
126
|
3
|
Aaron KWOK (HKG)
|
99
|
4
|
Hugues RIPERT
(HKG)
|
97
|
5
|
ZHANG Ran (CHN)
|
96
|
