TIM MAINTAINS CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD

Tim held onto a narrow lead in the Asian Carrera Cup Championship in Zuhai, China last weekend despite problems with the pace of his car throughout the meeting.  

For the first time this season Tim did not start his GruppeM Porsche from the front row of the grid as he could only qualify in 4th position for race 1, the pace at the front was very close and the first 5 cars were within 4 tenths of a second of the 1Minute, 37.5 second lap of pole sitter Daryl O’Young.

After qualifying Tim said that his car had simply been off the pace throughout the practice sessions and although his lap times were consistent they were two tenths off his expected pace but neither his GruppeM engineer, Wes Partridge nor his mechanic could trace any single problem.   He predicted that the race would be difficult and so it proved as he could only finish 3rd.   His main rival for the championship at the start of the meeting, Keita Sawa from Japan did not finish the race and dropped out of contention

So on to race 2 held just a few hours later and again a second row start with still no problem identified and if anything the performance falling further away.   The result this time was a disappointing 5th (4th place points) but as both races were won by Marchy Lee, an inconsistent scorer over the season and with Christian Jones second both times Tim’s hangs onto a 2 point lead at the top of the championship with second place now being held by Australian F3 champion Jones.

The deciding race of the season will be at the Macao GP meeting in two weeks time when the field is always boosted by extra entries for this prestigious event.  The circuit is a tight street circuit laid out especially for the weekend and, with little margin for error, accidents often dictate the result.