Coming into the opening round of the Blancpain GT Series Asia in Sepang, Malaysia this weekend Aidan Read and his new Craft-Bamboo Racing team had known that a difficult weekend may lay ahead with the Porsche 911 GT3 R historically less competitive in high temperature environments, and Sepang certainly fell into that category with the mercury rarely below 34 degrees.
It was soon apparent that the fears would be realised with both the team’s cars and drivers evenly paced against each other but consistently around two seconds behind the opposing teams.
Nonetheless team and driver stuck to the task and Aidan qualified for the weekend’s opening race in P11, ahead of the sister 911 of Shae Davies in P12. Teammate Daryl O‘Young fairing slightly less well in the second group qualifying for race two in P18 behind the sister car this time in P15.
At the start of race one, Aidan knew that he had to make places and a fantastic start with controlled aggression saw him propel the Porsche into fifth after the first sequence of corners, a tremendous effort starting the 911 in a race for the first time. From then on in it was time to turn attack into defence, aware the cars he had passed had more speed. Clever and precise driving kept the pack at bay and a Full Course Yellow flags and a safety car helped to keep the pressure off.
By the end of his 35-minute stint, only one car had made it past and Aidan handed the car to O‘Young in a creditable fifth position.
The pit stop strategy however saw O’Young lose track position re-joining the race in tenth spot and at the flag dropping a further place to the sister Craft-Bamboo car to bring the car home 11th.
Race two was always going to be a battle with the pairing starting far back on the grid. A frantic start only netted the status quo for O‘Young holding on to 18th for the first half of the race making up a single place through attrition to hand the car to Aidan 17th.
Aidan quickly got the hammer down to set the fastest lap for the car in the race and pick off three cars before bringing the car across the line in 14th.
“It’s mixed emotions from this weekend,” said Aidan. “The car was off the pace and our results weren’t really what we would have hoped for, but I have to take a great deal of comfort from my performance on the whole.
“Race one was particularly satisfying getting such a good start and racing hard with the other cars and pushing at the end of the stint when I had pulled a gap to the chasing pack. In a new car with a new team I couldn’t have expected more personally, and that bodes well for the remainder of the season when we visit tracks where the Porsche will be more competitive.”
The series moves on to Buriram in Thailand next month for Round 2 of the Blancpain GT Series Asia, another hot venue where solid points will be the realistic target.