Jazeman Jaafar finishes fifth in Spa 24 hrs
Upcoming Malaysian motorsports driver Jazeman Jaafar made an impressive debut at the Spa 24 Hours race last weekend with a fifth-placed finish driving HTP Motorsport’s Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG which he shared with Maximillian Gotz and Maximillian Buhk.
Competing in a field of over 60 cars with no less than 11 manufacturers being represented, Jazeman and his partners driving car no. 86 clocked the third fastest time in free practice before eventually qualifying for the Super Pole shoot-out being eighth fastest in the pack. Four laps in the Super Pole shoot-out saw Jazeman clocked as the 20th fastest driver, putting his team’s car on row 10 of the starting grid.
Things did not start encouragingly for car 86 on race day as they slipped further down the order. The first four hours of the race witnessed a series of accidents and mishaps as drivers spent over a quarter of that time behind a safety car. As the race settled into a smoother pace, car 86 gradually clawed its way up the field, making it to 16th place after four hours before advancing a further ten positions to sixth just two hours later. It wasn’t until the 20th hour, however, that the car made another positional gain to fifth, a position in which it finished the race.
Jazeman said after the race, “What an experience! I have loved every minute of my time with HTP at the Spa 24 Hours and it was great to have a top five finish in such a grueling race. It was the longest race I’ve ever done, but having so much time in the car was a real benefit to me. It was very competitive out on track and with so many cars, I had to stay totally focused every minute I was behind the wheel, so it was mentally draining as well as physically challenging, but that just adds to the enjoyment of competing in this type of event. My team mates, who are both previous winners of this race, were very helpful and made sure I settled into the team quickly and HTP Motorsport are a strong, professional team who were a pleasure to drive for.”
“This experience is great to have on my racing CV, and is certainly a discipline I’m interested in competing in, although at the moment my priority is my single-seater career. Spa 24 fitted neatly into my calendar as I’m not back in my Formula Renault 3.5 Series car until mid-September, so this was a great opportunity to keep race fit,” the Petronas Talent Development driver added.
Jazeman returns to racing action in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series at Hungaroring on 13-15 September.
Pictures: Jazeman Jaafar’s PR team
