Some may know Rizal Ashram Ramli or Jejai as a familiar face in the Malaysian celebrity scene. The son of former Perak MB has tricks kept under his sleeves, in which he had unleashed during the 4th Round of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia series held at the Guangdong International Circuit in Guangzhou, China by skillfully grabbing the podium spot for both races.
With much experience in hand and still fresh from his double victory in Ordos just last month, Jejai’s journey to the podium was not a walk in the park. During qualifying for the first race, he was involved in a crash that puts him away from getting the pole position. And although his qualifying time puts him second on the grid, a miscommunication with the team had forced him to start from the pit lanes instead, placing him at number 16 on the grid.
But with a rocket start, he climbed through the traffic and was behind the race leader Charlie Ro-Charlz of Lamborghini by lap 15. It was during the battle for the first place that Ro-Charlz suffered a brake failure and crashed. With the red flag being taken out shortly after, the results were taken from there and saw Ro-Charlz taking the first place followed by Jejai in second, and William Lok from Lamborghini Shanghai in third.
“Starting last on the grid I knew it was never going to be easy. I just had to focus on overtaking in the first few laps and do consistent lap times. Finishing 2nd place on the podium is very satisfying for me, the mechanics did a great job to prepare the car for the race” said Rizal.
The second race on Sunday however was on his side as although he did not run for the second qualifying session and started off from the 12th place on the grid, he again got a good start and was in 7th place on lap 1. By the third lap, he was already trailing the race leaders’ of Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo and it was on lap 11 where Jejai managed to underbrake the leader on the back straight and took over the lead. He then defended the lead position throughout the race and took the checkered flag.
“The odds were against me this weekend! This has been one of the hardest racing I’ve been through, I am very grateful to achieve this. The field was very competitive. My target now is to have podium finishes in the last four races,” Rizal reflected.
He now stands on the 2nd place in the championship, and will be facing the next round of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia at the Shanghai International Circuit on the 26th-28th October.
Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia Series Round 4 – Race 1 Results
- Charlie Ro-Charlz (99) – 44:31.748
- Rizal Ramli (9) – 44:32.425
- William Kok (2) – 45:24.654
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Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia Series Round 4 – Race 2 Results
- Rizal Ramli (9) – 49:54.319
- Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (37) – 50:07.671
- Tadao Uematsu (10) – 50:33.773
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