Double podium finish puts Tan back in hunt!
Rounds 2 & 3 of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia saw Singaporean driver Yuey Tan take a double podium finish in category, as he notched up only his second career win with a fantastic performance in the wet on Saturday afternoon.
Coming to Shanghai after the worst start to a race season in three years created only one goal for Tan: to get points on the board. With a total of 40 points on offer across two races, things went according to plan after scoring maximum points in Round 2 with a win and taking a 3rd place finish in Round 3, after a long battle with Francis Tjia. This resulted in the Singaporean driver taking 36 points across the race weekend, propelling him from 7th to 3rd on the Class B championship table.
“I’m very happy with the result this weekend,” said a happy Yuey Tan. “After Sepang, I was a little worried as there are so many competitive drivers in the line up this season and we all know how big a difference a few points can make!”
Tan started the weekend on some pretty average tyres, managing to go 2nd quickest in category for both practice sessions, though Saturday was a much more challenging affair. Qualifying was in the wet, with Tan putting his car 4th on the Class B grid, behind Mok Weng Sun, Wayne Shen and Malaysian race ace, Alif Hamdan. Things however did not go according to plan, with Tan putting on a new set of tyres halfway through the qualifying session, only to have the red flag out due to American Henri Richard hitting a tyre bundle, pausing the qualifying session. After the tyre bundle was put back into place, another spin from Team Synsanly’s Bao further halted the session, with the new set of tyres well past their best.
“Qualifying was pretty difficult in some treacherous conditions and lots of cars were spinning around. We managed to keep the car on the road though the new set of tyres we put on the car were not of any use, just circulating the session with red and yellow flags disallowing us to push. A little disappointing but that’s racing.”
Race 1 took place on Saturday afternoon, and started off fantastically with Tan jumping a few spots in his best start of the season. As the race settled down, Malaysia’s Alif Hamdan made a mistake dropping back but started to put big pressure on both Yuey Tan and Mok Weng Sun as he started to catch up. Throughout the race, the three drivers traded places and Mok managed to pass Tan three laps from the end at Turn 14 however Tan managed to get him back at Turn 6 in a closely fought affair. Tan crossed the line a mere seven tenths of a second in front of Clearwater Racing’s Mok Weng Sun.
“The first race was incredible,” commented Tan. “I took big pressure from a fast Alif Hamdan and although Weng has not been so competitive in the dry, we were all reminded that in a Cup car, this guy is still very quick in the wet! We had a great battle where I managed to beat him to the line, and we were happy we did not make any contact. One thing for sure, it was a very close race! I was really happy to get to the chequered flag.”
“There is nothing more satisfying than going wheel to wheel with a good competitor, and coming up on top while racing a clean race. It was very enjoyable this is for sure!” Race 2 was more of the same on Sunday afternoon, with Tan spending much of the race battling with OpenRoad Racing’s Francis Tjia which saw them trade places as well, also coming off with a clean race though Tjia got the better of Tan. With Tan spending much of the race just behind Team Betterlife’s Li Chao, Tjia managed to catch up to the train passing Tan toward the end of the race in a tightly fought affair.
“He managed to pass me two laps from the end and unfortunately, I had a car in front of me that I couldn’t get past. Francis took full advantage of the opportunity and coming from experience like Francis, I wouldn’t expect anything less. We have also had really good close racing and one day when we hang the boots up, I’ll always remember Francis for great racing on the track and a great bloke in the pit lane. Unfortunately, he beat me today but I’ll be back to beat him in Zhuhai!”
“Many thanks to my engineer Minal, EKS Motorsport and the Dorr Havelock Racing Team for giving me a fantastic car over the weekend. For sure there was more pace in the car than I had anticipated, especially in race 2 and if any improvement needs to be looked at, its from the driver. Though I’m up for the challenge and we still hope for a few more wins this season.”
Scoring 36 points from a possible 40, this has put Tan 3rd in his category championship, one point behind Francis Tjia and a further 13 points behind championship leader, Alif Hamdan. Singapore’s Mok Weng Sun is currently in 4th place with Wayne Shen making up the top 5 in the championship table.
