Jack Lemvard took the chequered flag in a hot and action packed Round 5 Asian Touring Car Series race at Sepang International Circuit today. The Thai driver reclaimed the lead in the Championship points table after being on equal points with his great rival, Melvin Choo, going into this race.
As the lights went off for the start of the race, the 20 car grid got off the lines clean and with the top six being positioned in a reverse grid order, with Daniel Amante Gomes in pole, there was a great rush to the first turn.
Following the reverse grid start for the top 8 drivers,Lemvard got to the leading bunch at the first turn and continued to make his way past the leading cars of Henry Ho and Mak Ka Lok before getting Gomes at turns three and four. From there, he pulled a gap away from Choo, who was stuck in the middle of the three Macau drivers before being able to get a clean path.
“My start was good and I think Melvin had a great start as well but he got boxed in. I went on the outside and I passed three cars at the first corner and I was in second. I was lucky because I broke away from Melvin, he was stuck behind all the Hondas.
“By turn 4, I passed into first and pulled out quite a big lead with a seven second gap. Then Melvin started to chase me down. I saw he was quite far behind so I just kept a consistent 1 minute 10.5 and 10.4 seconds so it was quite good. Then we had the back markers and that’s where he caught me quite a lot” said Lemvard during the post race press conference.
Choo managed to catch up to the race leader as the duo began to pass back markers. The Singaporean began to close in on Lemvard at lap 16 and was on his tail at lap 17. He then tried twice to make his move, overtaking once at the first corner and then again at turn three on the next lap, but Choo could not make the moves stick.
“The start for me was good but I was unfortunately boxed in by the cars in front of me, which gave Jack a chance to pull away.
“I worked really hard and I knew we would come up to the back markers, so I was hoping the back markers would affect him more than me. In the end I had a chance to make a couple of moves, it didn’t stick though. At the end, everyone got home safe and it was good racing” said Choo.
Third placed finisher, Henry Ho had a tough time during the race, after managing to overtake the front starting cars, he had a spin on lap three at the last turn. The spin allowed five cars to pass him dropping him down to eighth. He then fought his way back up the ranks to finally finish the race in third.
“At the start, the two cars behind me were really quick, they were two seconds faster than me and the cars in front were on the 15inch tyres giving them a better start. It is a short circuit so it was pretty hard to overtake them. I managed to get to third and then the BMW of Melvin overtook me. I tried to chase him but couldn’t so I just maintained my pace and tried to beat myself by clocking faster times.
“Then I made a mistake at the last corner. I spun and a few cars passed me so I had to give chase. It took me quite a few laps before I managed to claim back my third place” said Ho in closing.
In Division 2, Macau driver Lui Man Kit claimed the win ahead of Malaysian Eric Yeo and Adrian Henry D’Silva.
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