Weekend Racing Roundup, 8.18

Sepang hosted the Malaysian round of the GT Asia Series this weekend, while Trans-Am was in action at Mid-Ohio. Here’s the Sportscar365 Weekend Racing Roundup for the weekend of August 18.

GT Asia Series
On Saturday Alex Yoong started round seven of the GT Asia Series at Sepang from pole position, ahead of Christopher Mies, but it was Ferrari driver Rui Aguas who took the lead into turn one and held onto the lead until the pit stops.

After the stops the Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin, now driven by Frank Yu, was right behind the leading Ferraris. Within half a lap Yu passed the Ferraris and went on to win race one, finishing six seconds clear of his nearest rival.

On Sunday Thai driver Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak took the lead at the start, but before the pit stops BBT’s Anthony Liu overtook the Porsche to take the lead. Mok Weng Sun was third. A problem with the right front wheel in the pits cost Liu and Rizzo valuable time, which allowed Clearwater Racing driver Keita Sawa to move into the lead.

Sawa rejoined ahead of Max Wiser in the NB Team Aston Martin, while Rizzo rejoined in third place ahead of Rob Bell. In the remainder of the race Wiser closed in on Sawa, but was unable to catch him. After an hour Sawa crossed the line to take his third win of the season.

Race 1 – 1. Craft-Bamboo Racing (Mücke/Yu), 2. BBT (Rizzo/Liu) Ferrari, 3. Clearwater Racing (Bell/Hamaguchi) McLaren.

Race 2 – 1. Clearwater Racing (Sawa/Mok) Ferrari, 2. NB Team (Wiser/Jiang) Aston Martin, 3. BBT (Rizzo/Liu) Ferrari.

Trans-Am
Defending TA Champion and current points leader Doug Peterson claimed top honors in Saturday’s 3Dimensional Services Next Dimension 100 at Mid-Ohio, in a race that featured a packed field of 58 cars.

While having started third, Amy Ruman took over the lead from pole-sitter Tomy Drissi early. However, contact between the two cars while battling for the lead saw Peterson take over the point on Lap 15. Despite a battle with Cliff Ebben, Peterson managed to take home the win in his Corvette, his fourth of the year.

Adam Andretti, meanwhile, took his Engineered Components Camaro to victory in TA2, a class that saw the debut of two new Dodge Challenger SRT, including the return of four-time series champion Tommy Kendall. Kendall, who ran as high as fourth, retired with mechanical issues.

Race – 1. 3Dimensional.com (Peterson) Corvette, 2. Stumpf Ford (Ebben) Ford Mustang, 3. Gregg Motorsports (Gregg) Corvette.