Home Win for Solite Indigo in GT World Challenge’s Korean Debut

Photo: SRO

MG Choi and Manuel Metzger took a home victory for Solite Indigo Racing on Saturday as Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia made its inaugural visit to Yeongam, South Korea.

Metzger passed Philip Hamprecht shortly after the driver change pit stops to take the lead and move teammate Choi back into the championship lead with three races remaining.

Absolute Racing’s Hamprecht and Tanart Sathienthirakul slipped four points behind Choi with a third-place finish.

Yuya Sakamoto remains in title contention after his new teammate Marcos Gomes was able to snatch second for HubAuto Corsa from the Absolute Porsche 911 GT3 R late in the race.

This contributed to a top four that comprised four different manufacturers: Solite Indigo’s Mercedes-AMG GT3, HubAuto’s Ferrari 488 GT3, Absolute’s Porsche and fourth-placed Audi Sport Asia Team TSRT’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo.

Choi started from pole but was passed on the run to Turn 4 by Sathienthirakul and Sakamoto, with the three championship protagonists going on to circulate together until the mandatory pit stops.

Hamprecht exited the pits first, keeping the Absolute Porsche in first, ahead of Metzger’s Mercedes.

Metzger made his race-deciding move for the lead when Hamprecht was held up in GT4 traffic, and stayed out front for the remainder, while HubAuto’s Gomes made his way past Hamprecht with ten minutes on the clock.

Gomes finished 4.8 seconds behind Metzger, while Hamprecht was a further 3.5 seconds down at the line.

Rahel Frey and Weian Chen finished fourth in the TSRT Audi after successfully holding off Absolute’s second Porsche driven by Yuan Bo and Yeo Le Hongli.

Craft-Bamboo Racing took the GT4 win, making it a Mercedes-AMG sweep of both classes, with the German manufacturer filling the GT4 podium.

Frank Yu and Richard Wee took the win ahead of Team iRace.Win’s two cars, driven by Ringo Chong and Setiawan Santoso to second and Keo Chang and Joe Chi to third.

Race 2 is scheduled for 12:20 p.m. local time on Sunday (Sat. 11:20 p.m. EDT / Sun. 4:20 a.m. BST).

RESULTS: Race 1

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.