Porsche Carrera Cup Asia
September 24-25, 2011
Preview

Record entries, new management but the same exhilarating brand of one-marque racing: the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia series is bigger and better than ever and it’s back in Singapore to support Round 14 of the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Once again the field is divided into Class A, for the serious professional driver, and Class B, where talented amateurs can pit their skills against the battle-hardened big names of the category. It’s a series where you can come armed with your own team or simply ‘arrive and drive’ thanks to the special package deal offered by series partners EKS Motorsports.

The mechanical star of the proceedings, as always, is the finely-honed Porsche Carrera Cup Asia 911 GT3 Cup car, a German thoroughbred powered by its 3797cc flat-six ‘Boxer’ engine and developing 450 horsepower.

The engine is mated to a six-speed sequential box, while the car also has a specialised racing clutch and limited slip differential. Running on Michelin tyres, the car weighs around 1200 kilograms.

The Singapore round will consist of just the one race this year, forming Round 9 of the 11-round Porsche Carrera Cup calendar for 2011.

The series got off to a flying start in Shanghai, where Japan’s Keita Sawa took pole position but was upstaged in the two races by young Swiss up-and-comer Alexandre Imperatori. Shanghai-based Imperatori then won both races at the second meeting in Zhuhai, with series stalwart and former champion Darryl O’Young taking pole.

They broke new ground in inner Mongolia when they visited Ordos for the third meeting, and it threw up two new race-winners. Sawa was the first, with Macau’s Rodolfo Avila taking out the second race. O’Young was again on pole to underline that there is still genuine pace in the Hong Kong veteran yet.

Avila’s success, coupled with a strong run of podium finishes in the previous two meetings, carried him into a narrow Championship lead ahead of Imperatori. But Alexandre was having none of that: “I want to put things right in Malaysia,” said the Team StarChase driver, and that’s exactly what he did.

The point for pole position at Sepang on the last weekend in August put him level with Team Jebsen’s Avila, then back-to-back victories in the two races put Imperatori 12 points in the lead, 144 to Avila’s 132, as they turned for Singapore. Sawa is third on 125.

There’s a generous points system in place in Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, with points awarded on a sliding scale for the top 15 finishers: 20-18-16-14-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Marina Bay, of course, adds its own uncertainties to the mix, throwing in the challenge of a street circuit with all the vagaries of its tropical weather. Last year the rain caught out Christian Menzel, who eventually went on to claim the overall title, and allowed Kiwi Craig Baird to collect both race wins in the 2010 double-header.

Menzel had set the benchmark with a pole-winning time of 2:38.455 under threatening skies, a time put into perspective in race conditions by both O’Young, who set fastest lap in Race 1 with a 2:24.406, and Marchy Lee, whose Race 2 fastest lap was a 2:22.659.

One of those quick drivers is back this year. Hong Kong’s O’Young, 31, has been through a World Touring Car campaign as well as his Porsche Carrera Cup Asia achievements – he was overall champion in both 2006 and 2008 and the hunger still burns as his 2011 pace has demonstrated.

The Class B winner in Singapore last year was Mok Weng Sun, one of Singapore’s favourite sons, and the 34-year-old had a stellar 2010 altogether: four pole positions and 10 class wins took him to the second Class B title of his career, adding to his `07 success. Mok will be back in Class A specification this season.

Other names to look out for include another Singapore hero, Ringo Chong, now 35, who was second in Class B and seventh overall in last year’s series, and American youngster Brian Wong, a regular podium visitor in his first campaign in this category.

Imperatori for his part brings a serious single-seater pedigree with him: it includes a top five finish in the 2010 Japanese F3 championship class, A1GP for his country and Formula Renault 2.0. Avila, fourth overall in 2010 and 2009, is bent on going considerably higher in the standings this year, the former karting star also boasting considerable single-seater achievements on his way to the Porsche Carrera Cup.

Keep a close watch, too, on two Chinese competitors in this year’s talent-filled field. One is Rose Tan, the lone representative of the fairer sex Chinese competitor who says she is ‘living her dream’ by racing in the series this year; the other is 26-year-old Wang Jian Wei, the early front-runner in Class B.