A superb weekend for the eight strong lineup in Singapore entered under the B-Quik Absolute Racing umbrella with podiums in both TSS The Super Series races capped by a stunning victory for Andrew Haryanto in Race 1.
Haryanto, driving the #18 Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II pulled off an impressive win after making the correct tyre call in Saturday’s opener.
Sunday’s Race 2 continued the run of success as his team mate Yasser Shahin finished runner up and six cars from the stable finished in the top ten.
B-Quik Absolute Racing heads home very happy with how the weekend shook out on its first visit to the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
RACE 1
As TSS The Super Series built up to the start of its first ever race in Singapore the skies opened and rain lashed down. Then it abruptly stopped as the cars formed up and the teams had a big dilemma on their hands – slicks or wets? That decision would turn out to be the one that would decide the destiny of the race.
The two AMG GT3s on the front row plumped for slicks – as did virtually the entire field. However, Haryanto, starting from P8, and Vincente Floriendo, in the #55 B-Quik Absolute Audi in P10, both went for wets – and that would turn out to be the correct decision.
At the green lights, the two AMGs slotted in together at the front but behind them Haryanto was the man on the move and he soon locked horns with his Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute teammate Yasser Shahin in the #777 car, who had started on slick tyres.
There were many yellow flags as the race developed and Porsche mounted Yuey Tan suffered a spin but was able to continue unscathed.
The ferocious Audi battle was decided when Haryanto squeezed past the slick shod Shahin and on a wet track with wet tyres, the Indonesian was right in his element, he would soon clear polesitter Kantasak Kusiri (AMG) who had by now dropped to P2 and with 9 mins still remaining on the clock he snatched the lead away from Darryl O’Young (AMG) with a clean pass into Turn 1 before romping 5 seconds clear as he pulled off a truly sensational win.
An added bonus for Haryanto’s was bagging the fastest lap of the race, which handed him pole for Sunday’s Race 2!
Shahin came home fourth, locked onto the back of the two AMG cars in front, while Floriendo also had a real barnstormer of a race, he tenaciously fought his way up the running order after starting tenth, to finish fifth.
Anderson Tanoto in the #89 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II was another star of the 25-minute race, hacking his way through from field to finish ninth having started at the back.
In P12 overall Greg Bennett in the #11 B-Quik Absolute AFRacing Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport also snatched the final step of the GTC podium on his debut here, just ahead of Henk Kiks in the #26 B-Quik Absolute Audi who had plumped for slicks and thus had his work cut out over the 10 lapper to keep track position, and finally Tan, recovering well from his earlier spin to finish in P14.
RACE 2
If Saturday was wet, Sunday would turn out to be bone dry, but it still produced another epic race and at the green lights it was the hero of Race 1, Haryanto, who coolly converted his pole position advantage into the race lead – but he had to soak up huge early pressure from behind.
Eventually though Haryanto would slip to fourth and as the real ding-dong battle at the front shook out, Shahin, who had been on it all weekend, climbed up to second place.
During the closing laps O’Young, nursing a damaged car, again had to deal with Haryanto swarming all over him just like in Race 1, and again, the Indonesian would come out on top to grab the last podium step and make it two podiums from two races!
After 12 laps the hard charging Shahin arrived at the chequered flag to lead out Haryanto and make it an impressive 2-3 finish for the Audi Sport Asia Absolute “prize drive” winners.
Tan enjoyed a strong race to finish in a superb fifth, Floriendo was sixth and Tanoto came home eighth while the battling exploits of Kiks to work his way up into tenth place made it all five starting Audis in the top ten. Bennett, meanwhile, enjoyed another superb afternoon, going one better to finish runner up in GTC and make it two trips to the podium in two days.
Source. FastTrack Media
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