PERFECT START TO PORSCHE ASIA CUP CAMPAIGN

Tim got his Asian Carrera Cup series off to the best possible start by winning rounds 1 and 2 of the Porsche series at the Petronas Grand Prix Meeting over the Easter weekend.    The Porsche 997 GT3 car was entered by GruppeM Racing, Tim's main sponsor for the fourth season and although Marchy Lee in the KK Motors Hong Kong car beat him to pole for round 1 by 2 tenths of a second he took the lead at the start and was never headed in the Saturday afternoon race (7th April).

Run with a track temperature of 50ºC and with the top 4 cars covered in qualifying by less than 1 second over the 2 minute 11 seconds lap the race promised to be very close. Tim took the lead into the first corner and was able to keep a comfortable cushion to Lee throughout.    In setting fastest lap he kept clear of the battle between Lee, Asian F3 champion Christian Jones and highly rated Japanese driver Kieta Sawa to take the win by 2 seconds also setting fastest lap, Nigel Albon was 5th

For the second race at noon on Sunday the 8th before the F1 race Tim was in Pole position, these events featuring the first standing starts he has done for over 12 years.       After the first race he commented that pole was in fact on the dirty side of the track after the GP practice and so felt that gave him better drive from grid 2 into the first corner on that occasion.    Nevertheless, Tim again took the lead of round 2 immediately followed by the former Formula BMW champion Lee and with Jones and Sawa again disputing third place.   The pattern remained the same and track temperatures were even higher at 58ºC making cool suits a vital accessory in the closed cars.

Tim again controlled the race from the front as the battle continued for the other podium places and Sawa this time set the fastest lap on his way to third place behind Lee.   After the race Tim said that he felt the series will continue to feature close battles as all the cars are identical and prepared by the same engineers giving no chance for any modifications, the drivers can only change the suspension settings as they set the cars up for each track.   All the circuits used by the Asian series are new to Tim except for Zuhai in China where the penultimate meeting will be held whereas his competitors are all experienced racers on the tracks.