A fairytale conclusion to the truncated Thailand Super Series season for B-Quik Absolute Racing at Buriram’s Chang International Circuit yesterday as the team retained the Super Car GT3 Drivers’ and Teams’ titles at the very last gasp.
Sandy Stuvik claimed his second consecutive Super Car GT3 Drivers’ title while his team mate Daniel Bilski won his first. The No 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 bagged both poles, one apiece by the drivers with Daniel’s being his first ever in TSS, a third place finish in Saturday’s Race 1 and then finally the title clinching win in Sunday’s Race 2.
The pure joy that erupted from the team as Daniel gunned our No 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 across the finish line at 1715 on Sunday to not just win the fourth and final race of this season but to wrest the destiny of the Drivers’ title out of the hands of our rivals at the end of a ‘winner takes all’ race, was amplified even further a few seconds later as Philip Massoud crossed the line in P4 in the No 26 Audi R8 LMS GT3 to bring home the vital chunk of points we needed to seal the Team’s title.
It’s a race that the No 1 car had started from pole position in the hands of Sandy. He converted that into the race lead and then drove an astounding stint, rapidly pulling out a much needed cushion at the front.
Daniel then had to turn in an equally tough stint as he fended off the title-rival Bentley, which relentlessly pressured him from just a couple of seconds back for the whole of his stint. But we came into this event on the backfoot, knowing that if we were to win these titles, we would have to do it the hard way and the drivers were more than up for the challenge.
In the No 26 Audi R8 LMS GT3 the exciting new partnership of Henk Kiks and Philip Massoud has really been on fire but in Saturday’s race the car was excluded for a technical infringement and that loss of points could have proved hugely costly as we tried to reel in the comfortable championship leaders in the Teams’ standings.
However, a tenacious, fighting drive in Race 2 saw them finish fourth overall (and runners up in the AM class, their third second-step of the podium this season) and they delivered the points we crucially needed to overhaul our rivals and win the prestigious Teams’ crown.
Philip has joined the team for the first time this year and it’s his first time at GT3 level but he’s been a fantastic addition to our driver roster and he’s been getting faster and faster every time he jumps in the car.
We also claimed our first front row of the grid lock out for Saturday’s Race 1, another record in a weekend of records.
The team made the long trip back to Bangkok from the North East elated with our success as it hadn’t looked anything like as rosy following the first round two weeks ago. However, gritty driving, sheer determination and slick work by the whole team coupled to a ‘never give up’ spirit meant we emerged ahead at the end and thus held onto the two top titles in Thai motorsport which we won last year.
The short, blistering 2020 TSS season is now over and we can soon start looking forward to 2021.
Source. FastTrack Media
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