Double podium finish secures 2nd in championship!
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia driver Yuey Tan, has scored a double class B podium finish as he finished 3rd and 2nd respectively for round 11 & 12. The Singaporean went into the season finale with the possibility of still winning the championship, lying 3rd place in category on the championship table. At the beginning of the weekend, Tan was two points adrift of 2nd place Francis Tjia and five points away from 1st place Alif Hamdan. With twenty points on offer per round, anything could happen! Porsche Carrera Cup’s season finale was promised to be nothing short of spectacular, with grand events planned through the race weekend for the fans and sponsors coupled with a nail biting race that would leave the spectators on the edge of their seats!
Practice started on Friday morning with Tan finished 2nd quickest in category, behind Hamdan after a display of some great driving from both drivers, as close as a tenth of a second in the first session. Things seemed rather hopeful for Tan though there was still a long way to go. Qualifying was set on Saturday morning with the team feeling great about the lead up and pace going into qualifying though unfortunately, Tan suffered the worse qualifying session of the year qualifying 4th in category behind Hamdan, Tjia and Shen making it very difficult to fight at the top of the category. Race 1 was scheduled for Saturday afternoon and Tan got off to a decent start although there was a series of spins and contact that changed the grid around, with Henri Richard shooting up the field with a great start. After the race settled down, Tan sat firmly in third place for most of the race battling with Li Chao and Singapore’s Ringo Chong till the final lap, where all cars finished without incident after a fast paced race.
“The first race was a heck of a lot of fun I must say,” said a happy Tan. “It wasn’t ideal as the five point gap turned to a ten point gap to Alif, but I managed to finish in front of Francis after a spin on his part a bit earlier on. So I was further away from first, but now moved up from third to second. So it was a little bitter sweet!” Race 2 took place on Sunday afternoon, with a lot on the line for the top three in category, with Hamdan going into the race with everything to lose. Ten points was the gap between Hamdan and Tan, and Tjia trailing Tan by a further two points. So the championship was still up for grabs. The plan seemed simple enough. Tan needed to beat Hamdan though the odds were against him and the records too! As the lights went green, Tan blotched up his start, not getting off the line while the rest of the field past him and he fell to dead last. Though he did then get going and it was a long race to catch up to Francis and Alif, he still cement one of the top two spots in the category championship. Tan battled lap after lap, taking tremendous risk in the corners and driving out of his skin.
A few laps into the race, Shen and Tjia made contact, causing Tjia to make further contact with Mok Weng Sun and putting Tjia and Mok down the order after a broken wing on the Clearwater Racing car. After eight laps, Tan caught up, putting himself on the podium and was running in 3rd place. Suddenly at three laps from the end, the safety car was deployed for the broken down car of Ringo Chong. The safety car ended up closing the gap to 2nd place Wayne Shen and after the safety car period, Tan pounced taking his chance two corners from the end of the race. He passed Shen on the inside of turn 14 though the Modena Motorsport driver closed the door firmly and driving Tan off the circuit. “We made some decent contact. He misjudged where I was and turned into me. I thought my championship position for 2nd was over. Though miraculously, I recovered, finished the race and then parked the car immediately to prevent any potential damage! Luckily we checked the car after and everything was fine!” “I guess I have to count myself lucky that we managed to recover the way we did from last place. It is a race I will never forget. I never thought I’d catch Francis and Wayne but luckily I did!” Shen was given a thirty second penalty after the race, giving Samson Chan his first podium finish this season!
“I want to say a big thank you to my race team, Dorr Havelock Racing and all of my fantastic sponsors; the Dorr Group, PPP Laser Clinic, Exquisite Marques, Leica, EduTorque, TIN TIN The Singapore Shop. Also to my racing engineer Minal, the EKS crew of Hong, Charlie, Noel and Mike, my girlfriend Claire Jedrek for being there always and all of the fans and supporters. Only together can we get this far and move forward together!”
