Audi R8 LMS Cup – Double win for Alex Yoong
The Audi R8 LMS Cup makes its debut in Malaysia this weekend, with Rounds 7 & 8 serving as support races to this year’s edition of the annual Merdeka Millenium Endurance Race at the Sepang International Circuit. The series, which debuted in China only last year, organized its first ever race outside the People’s Republic earlier this month with Rounds 5 & 6 at Inje, South Korea.
Being held in conjunction with our National Day weekend, it was somewhat appropriate that our local motorsports hero Alex Yoong took the chequered flag for both Rounds 7 & 8, putting him back on top of the standings table after conceding the championship lead to Adderly Fong following the disastrous weekend in Korea where he had to miss Round 5 and start Round 6 from the back of the grid.
It had all threatened to go horribly wrong for Yoong once again, as he seemingly squandered a pole start and dropped to fifth after only the second corner of the first lap. Down but not out, Yoong gradually recovered ground as the race progressed, passing rising Korean star Kyong-Ouk You in lap three and then dispatching Franky Cheng with seven laps to go to drag himself back to second place.
Going into the last three laps, Yoong was within half a second of race leader Marchy Lee, and after both drivers negotiated their way past spinning backmarker Benjamin Lee, Yoong was able to pass Marchy on the inside going into turn fifteen. A mistake by Yoong on turn fourteen on the subsequent lap allowed both Marchy Lee and Franky Cheng to close in, but Yoong was able to recover his composure and steer his way to victory. At this stage, Adderly Fong was still able to retain his championship lead by finishing fourth.
The drivers reconvened on track earlier this morning, and this time round, Yoong drove an error-free race leading from start to finish, taking home the chequered flag to ensure that the Negaraku was played twice over the weekend. Round 8 was a relatively uneventful affair, with Franky Cheng and Adderly Fong completing the podium in second and third places respectively.
Alex Au of Hong Kong completed a double win in the amateur category, twice upstaging Canto-pop superstar Aaron Kwok, who had actually led both races at some stage, but twice had to contend with crossing the finishing line second. A 30-second penalty imposed on Kwok for an incident in Round 7 which his car touched the vehicle of Naomi Zhang Ran saw him officially declared as finishing fourth.
“We saw a very competitive speed race in extremely hot weather conditions. The fact that all entries finished the race once again shows the great reliability of our GT3 race cars. It was an excellent debut of our brand cup in Malaysia. The circuit and facilities are fantastic. And the passion of the motorsport fans here at Sepang has been great”, commented Rene Koneberg, Director of Audi Sport customer racing Asia.
With the Malaysia rounds over for the Audi R8 LMS Cup, attention now turns to the 12-hour MMER scheduled to start later at 12:00am. Audi will have four cars on the field, three of which had earlier competed in the LMS Cup earlier with the other car coming from an Audi GT Asia team. Altogether, eight drivers from the Audi R8 LMS Cup, including Yoong, will also get behind the wheel for the MMER.
Pictures: Official Audi release.
