2017 Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup – Round 1 Race 2, WIN Motorsport makes it a Double Win.

WIN Motorsport has done it again as their drivers, William Lok and Davide Rizzo took the #1 Ligier JSP3 LMP3 car to the finish line in first place after a well calculated battle that saw grid positions change drastically throughout. 1 minute 16.073 seconds behind was second placed #27 Infinity Race Engineering ADESS 03 of James Winslow and Neale Muston. In third was Shinyo Sano (the only solo driver in the race) in his #99 TKS Ginetta LMP3.

Fourth overall and first in GT3 class was the #98 Arrows Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 FL2 of Maxx Ebenal and Michael Choi. Second in GT3 and fifth overall was Kantasak Kusiri and Bhurit Bhirombhakdi in their #59 Singha Plan B Motorsport Audi R8 LMS. Rounding up the third spot in GT3 was the #92 Team AAI BMW Z4 of Ollie Millroy and Chi Huang, they were also sixth overall. The other Team AAI car, the #93 McLaren 650S GT3 driven by Jun San Chen and Terry Fang were fourth in their class and seventh overall.

Over in GT Cup, Team NZ has emerged tops again in their class as John Curran and Graeme Dowsett took their #77 Porsche 997 and went ahead of the #15 PAS Macau Racing Porsche 997 of Eurico de Jesus and Wong Kian Kuan. The only non-starter of Race 2 was the #3 Eurasia Ligier JS53-EVO with drivers Douglas Khoo and Dominic Ang as the car continued to be plagued by issues.

William Lok, #1 WIN Motorsport Ligier JSP3, LMP3 First Place
“Today we changed some strategies so I started the race, it was a good start, I stayed with the leaders and I saw them fighting each other so I kept my nose clean and made sure that I kept up with the guys. Once I got some clear air I was doing pretty decent lap times on the pace and Sano was really quick in the beginning it was hard to catch him but I kept my cool, kept my pace going on and did as much as I can and brought the car back clean so that Davide can finish it.”

Davide Rizzo, #1 WIN Motorsport Ligier JSP3, LMP3 First Place
“I would like to congratulate the whole team that did a great job. I have to complain about William as he did not let me to do anything, I just had to sit in the car for my stint and its his fault for improving too much. It was a great result today, the team did a really good job, it was a nice car and I hope the next weekend would be the same. Thank you everyone.”

Neale Muston, #27 Infinity Race Engineering ADESS 03, LMP3 Second Place
“Congratulations to Davide and William for the flawless drive, so its pretty hard to compete with great driving like that. We made a few changes overnight so we are just lacking aero on the car though we have enough power. We gave everything we could and the car felt a little better today but we had a little contact on Turn 2 and that upset our rear diffuser, it just lifted the rear a little bit so it was a little hard to drive quickly for both of us. Other than that I just really sat down and tried to get some decent lap times, it was really hot which was quite a test, but its been great and I always loved to drive here so we will come back and do it again.”

James Winslow, #27 Infinity Race Engineering ADESS 03, LMP3 Second Place
“I jumped in for the second stint, it was pretty tricky, it was very hot and I struggled a little with the balance and we tried to move everything forward, the car felt pretty much like yesterday but we will come back and keep fighting and improve the ADESS for the next event and hopefully these guys who keep winning all the races a bit more challenge.”

Shinyo Sano, #99 TKS Ginetta LMP3, LMP3 Third Place
“This time is my first time in podium position again so I really don’t know what to say. I was battling really hard with the Team AAI BMW Z4 early on and that gave me a lot of experience for the races ahead, I look forward to the next race! Thank you.”

Maxx Ebenal,  #98 Arrows Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 FL2 , GT3 First Place
“I think the race was very good, we knew today we just had to do one thing and it was not to make any mistakes. Yesterday we got a penalty and unfortunately we had to do a stop and go and I think that really hurt us. We were pretty lucky today too because the other GT3 team got a penalty as well and that helped us for sure. The team did an excellent pit stop, the timing was perfect, our driver change was due too, and I think we both had really good stints.”

Michael Choi, #98 Arrows Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 FL2, GT3 First Place
“It was a great race, I started really clean and there was no incidents, I just followed the fast drivers and tried to keep up with the pace thus I was able to come back not to far from the rest of the cars, did an excellent driver change and everything went perfect. It was a great weekend.”

Graeme Dowsett, #77 Team NZ Porsche 997 GT3Cup, GTCup First Place
“Congratulations to the boys from Macau, they pushed us really hard right till the end, gave us some good clean racing so congrats to them it was very fun and thank you very much. We had to go through pretty much entire race without relaxing.”

John Curran, #77 Team NZ Porsche 997 GT3Cup, GTCup First Place
“Just to reiterate what Graeme said, thanks very much to PAS Macau Racing, we got a taste of what GT Cup can be in the Sprint series, its very close racing, very clean racing and I think I went a little harder than Graeme this afternoon and got into a little spin at Turn 9 but it was a very enjoyable weekend overall and thanks to the organisers.”

Credits : Photos and content courtesy of Asian Le Mans Endurance Management Ltd