Hunter Abbott has been crowned Blancpain GT Series Asia’s inaugural champion after fourth place in Zhejiang’s season finale was enough to claim the title by a single point from OD Racing’s Aditya Patel and Mitch Gilbert who became the first crew to win both races over the same weekend.
Sixth place for Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong saw the Audi Hong Kong crew drop from first to third in the final standings, three points behind Abbott, after their race was compromised on the opening lap by Jules Szymkowiak.
They still end the season as Silver Cup champions after edging out Patel and Gilbert.
CMRT Eurasia’s James Cai and Kenneth Lim overcame their five-point deficit to win GT3’s Am Cup crown, while second place was more than enough for Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Jean-Marc Merlin and Frank Yu to wrap up the GT4 championship after finishing behind Ringo Chong and Kan Zang.
The season finale couldn’t have been more finely poised before starting behind the Mercedes-AMG Safety Car – required as a result of the very wet conditions – thanks to the three remaining championship contenders all incurring a mix of benefits and disadvantages.
Gilbert lined up on pole but would have a 10-second success penalty to serve during the driver change with Patel, Abbott and co-driver Maxi Buhk started fifth and would be stationary for an additional five seconds, and Lee and Thong were starting eighth but racing handicap-free.
Mitchell let his advantage slip almost immediately once racing began in anger after two laps when Martin Rump pounced on the Malaysian’s mistake at Turn 1 to take the lead.
The Estonian was in a league of his own thereafter and had built a 16-second gap by the time he pitted after 30 minutes.
Further back, Lee and Thong’s championship hopes unravelled when the latter was tapped into a spin by GruppeM Racing’s Szymkowiak after initially taking seventh from the #888 Mercedes-AMG, which received a 30-second post-race penalty as a result.
That dropped the Audi to the back of the GT3 field, and although Thong would recover to 11th before the pitstops, he and Lee were never likely to finish ahead of Abbott whose co-driver Buhk had moved up one place to fourth before pitting.
Rump’s incredible first stint allied to Gilbert’s 10-second success penalty resulted in Rick Yoon inheriting a 22-second lead by the time Patel jumped aboard with 25 minutes remaining.
The mix of driver gradings and particularly challenging conditions meant the Indian was always likely to catch the Audi’s Am driver even before Yoon spun away the lead with 13 minutes left on the clock.
All eyes were now on Abbott, whose five-second success penalty saw him re-join in fifth. That quickly became fourth after dispatching Jeffrey Lee, whose J-Fly by Absolute Racing co-driver Alessio Picariello ran third throughout the opening stint.
Maintaining those positions would see the GruppeM driver beat Patel and Mitchell by a point, and although Chris Dreyspring’s advancing VSR Lamborghini provided some cause for concern, Abbott was never under any real threat.
Patel took the checkered flag 2.5s clear of Devon Modell and debutant Andre Heimgartner’s Craft-Bamboo Porsche, which looked completely at home in the treacherous conditions.
The latter endured a tough start to his stint after dropping to 13th but produced an eye-catching performance thereafter to battle through to fifth before pitting.
Modell re-emerged in third and slowly but surely homed in on Patel while also taking advantage of Yoon’s spin.
The KCMG by Champion Racing Audi claimed a first long-overdue podium, although Abbott was right on Yoon’s tail at the chequered flag, while Dreyspring and Sandy Stuvik’s VSR Lamborghini was only 3.6s further back.
Avoiding retirement was all Jean-Marc Merlin and Frank Yu required in order to claim this year’s GT4 title, and the Craft-Bamboo pair did just that by finishing second behind Ringo Chong and Kan Zang who recorded a first class victory of the season for HubAuto Racing.
Merlin took it steady in the tough conditions during his opening stint and was content to let the likes of Chong and Eric Lo squabble for the class lead. Yu re-joined in fourth but was running third when Lo’s EKS Motorsports co-driver Byron Tong crashed heavily at the start of the final lap.
That promoted the Craft-Bamboo Porsche to second, while the #10 Cayman was still classified third.
RESULTS: Race 2