I’m back on another plane, this time from KL back to London, so I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you about my first GT race with Fun88 Racing in a Lamborghini in the GT Asia championship. I started to mention it in my last blog, but honestly I have so much to say about it, I needed a whole blog, haha!
I mentioned arriving on the Wednesday morning of the race weekend, and driving that afternoon and the next day. This was just general testing. Not too much happened, I was just getting familiar with the team, with Sepang, with having a roof on my head, and sitting on the left hand side! We weren’t lightning quick, but we found something broken at the end of the Thursday that would have been hampering us a lot! Then, the real race weekend started.
Firstly, let me tell you about the team and the car a bit. Fun88 Racing is run by SPS racing, a team based in Hong Kong run under the sponsors name (confusing I know). We were a tiny team compared to some of the others and running a new car for the first time. The guy in charge was Kenneth Lau. He was from Hong Kong but had grown up in Canada. He had a really good sense of humour and was really helpful. He was really keen for us to get to the front and show our small team could fight with the big boys. I was racing with Michael Choi, an ‘Amateur’ driver, but he was very quick for an amateur driver (in GT Asia, there is mostly Pro-Am driver line ups. I was the ‘Pro’ and Michael was the ‘Am’) He was racing for fun. He’s a business man by week, racing driver on the weekends. Very cool life to live if you ask me!! He was a cool guy and I really enjoyed racing with him. He improved a lot over the weekend and was putting in some quick lap times at the end. I think he appreciated my help, but I guess I’ll never know, haha.
Now onto the racing side. Practice was pretty straight forward. We were running in the top 10 of the 29 cars all of the time so we were looking good for qualifying. There was two qualifyings. In qualifying 1, I drove, along with the other ‘Pro’ drivers. Michael drove in Qualifying 2, with the ‘Am’ drivers. In my qualifying, I was P8. It was okay out of the 29 cars however, I had a bit of traffic and I think P5 or P6 was on the cards. I was in the mix with Factory drivers from Europe. Some were from Aston Martin, Mclaren, Audi and some big names in Japan. I was happy to be around them to be honest because they are the real deal in GT cars! What’s fun about GT racing, is you then watch your co drivers qualifying. It’s like watching your favourite football team play. You can’t take your eyes off the screen. When Michael did a good lap, we were cheering. If he had a slow one, we were stressing. It was all part of the fun! Michael ended up P12, not a bad effort as he hadn’t raced in 6 months.
Since I did qualifying 1, I was going to start race 1. We had to do a rolling start, which means the whole field is moving at about 50-60KPH before the lights go out. When you approach turn 1, you are moving! It was a new experience for me. In single seaters we have a standing start. Also, being on the left hand side of the car, I didn’t really know where anyone was around me. Whole new experience! I lost a couple of places but then clawed them back during my 35 minute stint. When I pitted I was p7. Unfortunately, we had a slow driver change. We lost 36 seconds in the pitlane. Michael did a good job in the race though, however, we lost way too much time in the driver change. Finished p11. If you take off the time we lost in pitlane, we would’ve finished p5… Not that it helps haha.
Michael started race 2 and the weather was a bit mixed, he felt more confident starting on wets. He was going well until the track dried. Anyway, he came in in 12th position. Today, we had a mega driver change, but we lost way too much time to the other teams changing tyres to the dry ones. It was a shame. We lost 25 seconds. Again we would have been in the mix for p7 ish which would have been a great result. I had the 4th fastest lap and it was a mega experience!
I want to tell you guys why I enjoyed it so much. Maybe this is strange, but I really enjoyed driving with someone else, being part of a team. I felt like I could make much more of a difference. If we practiced driver changes, we make a difference and gain time. If I helped coach Michael to find a second on his lap time, it saved loads of time. After my qualifying session, I said what we should do to the car so it was perfect for Michael. I just felt I could make such a difference. I also can’t tell you how much you can’t take your eyes off the screen when the other driver is driving. All you are seeing is lap times, but it’s just addictive. You just want to see how the other driver is doing, and if you can help with encouragement on the radio. When I was coaching Michael at the end of the day, and when we were practicing pit stops for hours on a Friday night, I felt part of a team. The whole team had to work together. It was just a nice experience. There is team work in single seaters, but not at the same level as this.
Honestly, I had so much fun racing GT cars and hope to make a return soon. I love being able to make a difference and help the whole team.
Sorry for the length again, but I thought I’d share this special feeling with you.
Preparation for Sochi GP3 race has started already, so I’ll keep you updated soon!
P.S. It is my mums birthday today, so big happy birthday to the person who has made the most sacrifices for me on earth ❤️
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Read more about Mitch Gilbert here.
