A race weekend to forget for Tan
The Porsche Carrera Cup Asia’s first visit to Thailand in a decade saw great promise for Singaporean driver, Yuey Tan to extend his lead over Francis Tjia and Wayne Shen at the top of the class B standings. However things didn’t go quite to plan as Tan only registered a 5th and 4th place finish respectively across the two races, having his championship lead reduced to a mere three points. The first two practice sessions of the weekend saw Tan’s Porsche GT3 Cup Car suffering from a gearbox problem, the car not allowing the driver to downshift during certain times of the circuit. Combined with a spin at over 200kph in practice 2, this didn’t do anything good for the rhythm or confidence of the driver only going 4th quickest in the category after the practice sessions. “From the very start of the weekend, we were off the pace,” explained Tan. “We were at a brand new track where getting maximum laps was a top priority though unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. I suffered gearbox trouble in practice 1 and in practice 2, had to retire the car prior to the end of the session once again because of the gearbox. I was pretty damn frustrated!” On top of a malfunctioning gearbox, Tan also took a high speed spin as he went through turn 4 of the Chang International Circuit at a speed of over 200km/h in the second practice.
“It was a pretty fast spin but luckily nothing was damaged on the car! I wasn’t too happy about it though.” As qualifying came on Saturday morning, Tan had put what he thought was the worse of the weekend behind him. The new tyres came out from the covers and the gearbox was thought to be sorted. The #5 Jebsen car was ready for maximum attack! Though as Tan put on his second set of tyres to do his flying lap, the gearbox once again disallowed downshift commands with Tan’s Jebsen car stuck in 4th gear for four laps. “Our gearbox woes this weekend were definitely not needed. It’s almost as if we have used up our good luck as the car has been mechanically perfect for quite sometime.” Tan’s race car has been 100% reliable since the beginning of the 2013 season, a testament to Porsche race cars and the team of engineers and mechanics that he has worked with over the course of the last few seasons. In race 1, Tan finished in 5th position, two positions behind championship rival Francis Tjia losing a further four points to him in the championship hunt. Race 2 also placed Tan behind Tjia, losing another two points of his advantage going into the Thailand round of the Carrera Cup Asia.
“Francis drove well and maximised his hunt to take the championship lead while I did not do as well as we could have done. The pace was there but unfortunately, a combination of factors prevented this from happening. Unfortunately, we also suffered from mechanical problems in three of the sessions this weekend which just about destroyed the weekend. Think we need to put the Thailand rounds behind us and concentrate on our next visit to Sepang!” Tan currently leads the class B championship by three points with 117 points over second placed rival Francis Tjia with 114. Third place Wayne Shen is a further 14 points adrift sitting on a total of 100 points with six rounds to go in the 2015 season.
