Team NZ Motorsport has consolidated its advantage in the Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup Drivers’ and Teams’ championship classifications after securing a win and a second place finish from the two 1-hour races that comprised the second round of the year, held at Sepang Circuit last weekend.
Having gained pole in the GT Cup class for both races, Saturday’s 1-hour race saw Graeme Dowsett drop to second after avoiding a spinning LMP3 car. Having regained the lead, Dowsett was able to hand the car over to Nick Foster who was able to extend the lead until the chequered flag.
Nick Foster (Australia): “It was a good race for us as we came away with the win so that’s a positive but there were a lot of little dramas throughout the race and still some ongoing fuel pressure problems which hampered our run towards the finish. Some of the things were due to the lack of car time we’ve had this so far weekend, but overall it’s been quite positive.”
Foster started the second race of the weekend, enjoying a clean getaway and was able to consolidate a healthy lead. However fuel issues returned, dropping lap times as Dowsett took over.
The team soon slipped down to P2 with their main championship rivals, PAS Macau Racing, taking full advantage of the ailing car to assume the GT Cup lead.
Dowsett was forced to reboot the car every lap although he was able to nurse the car to the chequered flag. Second place meant an end to the team’s winning run in GT Cup but it was a positive result as the points awarded were crucial towards the championship.
Graeme Dowsett: “The race for us was certainly a little disappointing. Nick started off really well, conserved the tyres and built up the gaps. However, the problems we had all week with the fuel started about four laps before the pitstop. So we brought him in a little early, see if we could let the pumps rest and reset.
“Nick gave me a very good debrief on how to drive around the problem, but in short it got worse during my stint so I had to nurse it home. We got second so we were lucky to finish. So the positive of the weekend is we got a first and a second place but we still have a fundamental problem to solve.”
“In the Teams’ championship we now have 97 points, our advantage over the second placed team up by two points to 18, while in the Drivers’ championship Graeme is on 97 points and leads the standings, 18 points ahead of the next driver.”
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