Aidan Read travelled to Shanghai at the weekend (22-24 September) for the penultimate round of the Blancpain GT Series Asia and showed his true pace in leading outright for the first time with FFF Racing by ACM, and then finishing as the top Lamborghini in the field in the second round.
Teaming up once again with Alberto Di Folco in the #1 Lamborghini Huracan GT3, Aidan was charged with the first qualifying session of the weekend for the first race. A great run of five laps saw him record a best of 2:20.560, putting him seventh on the grid.
The start of the race took place in damp conditions, with the team opting to put Aidan’s #1 Lamborghini on wet weather tyres. Aidan make a great getaway and into the first turn he took a tight line as he exploited the extra grip to run in third position.
By turn six, Aidan took the lead of the of the race as he made a great exit from the previous turn, but was with the safety car being deployed, was unable to build the gap the team had hoped for. The racing resumed soon after, but the circuit was drying much faster than anyone expected.
As a result, Aidan’s wet-weather tyres soon started to fade and he pitted at the end of lap 11 having dropped down the order. However, it was a confidence boost to lead outright for the first time. Teammate Di Folco brought the car home in 11th position, seventh in their silver class.
Di Folco qualified the #1 car for the second race in 16th position, and made good strides in his stint in wet conditions to hand over to Aidan in 12th position. Aidan made further gains to move up to seventh position – fifth in the silver class – by the chequered flag, fending off advances from behind to take the top spot for Lamborghini in the race.
“I had a great weekend away,” Aidan explained. “I really enjoyed my time behind the wheel. I feel like I made a lot of progress with my pace and got back into a solid top ten position which was encouraging. I had some of my best moments of the season, leading in race one and defending for the top Lamborghini in treacherous conditions in race two.
“We will aim to make the most of the new layout in Zhejiang in the next round to propel ourselves into a genuine top five position, from there we can push for the podium.”