The Team
Finally; it’s here. The start of the 2017 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia season.
What a long wait it has been! As I look to start my 9th season in the Asia’s Premire one make series, there are so many things that are familiar and true and that has created the correct setting for the season ahead. Things are looking great for the season ahead!
Just to look at some statistics to help me tell the story, I have driven a total of 103 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Grand Prix’s, finishing in the Pro Am category 67 times.
The first small miracle is the stability in which I have been able to race in, for the past three seasons. It has been a tremendous opportunity for me to pilot one of the two Team Jebsen cars and during every off season, there is always a chance that people will move. We stay well organized with Joe and Terence Walker keeping stuff in check. Minal as the racing engineer will be at Jebsen for his 4th race season running, and the mechanics on my car have been with me since 2009 and have followed me wherever I have gone. Stability is an important necessity in our team trying to get better results during the 2017 season, something that all of us at Jebsen are firmly focused on!! There is no doubt that we all know each other very well, as most of us knew each other way before we worked in the same team together. I reckon that our seamless system of communication would clearly help us out and give us an advantage. So that is pretty good!
I’d also like to make a special mention to my grandad, Dr. Chou Chung Shih from the Chou Dispensary for those of you who remember in Singapore. He has always been a big support for me since the start of my racing adventure that started in 2008, and he’s been telling me to just keep pushing so, for sure I’ll be driving for him as well this season! Truth be told, all of my big trophies and significant moments are kept in his dining room. Good man.
This season in Pro Am, I will be targeting race wins in every start from the start to the end of the season. Of course it is entirely possible that this will not happen, but that will be the target nevertheless. I sincerely look forward to battling with some of my mates like Francis Tjia, though I know he will be putting in his best as well. It’s always nice to re-ignite a rivalry with a competitor as classy and as fiery as Francis. He’s a cool guy.
After a 4th place finish in category in 2016, I will be definitely bent on putting that right and getting better results. Consistency will be key as usual, with incidents ultimately costing me serious championship points throughout the season, most notably registering a DNF at the last race weekend of the 2016 season. That was extremely costly.
It’s been an interesting off season where I have been having a look at some statistics over the last nine seasons of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia in m in my category standings. I’ve had 103 starts in Asia’s Premire one make series, registering 67 podium finishes and missing two whole seasons of podiums as I was pretty much getting smashed by Francis Tjia race after race! There were two challenging seasons throughout the 2010 and 2011 seasons, and the first half of 2012 was also trophy less. Things however started to turn in the latter half of 2012. It’s been a lot more productive since then. Let’s see how it goes!
2017 will surely produce a number of entertaining races for teams, drivers and fans alike as we visit the massively challenge Bangseasn Circuit for the first time, a technical street circuit on the streets of Bangseasn beach! Coupled with Shanghai, Singapore, Fuji, and Sepang, its going to be one thrilling season that is for sure!
It’s going to be our 4th year with the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup car during the 2017, and the last year that the legendary Metzer engine architecture is going to be used. Over the last eight seasons, I’ve had the pleasure of driving different versions using this foundation, from a sequential shifter to a flappy paddle gearbox, from smaller tyres to bigger ones while also increasing downforce, though the engine has always been an evolution of the one before it. So here we are in 2017, for 14 more nail biting races before our new racing machine comes out. We better make it count!
