SUGDEN
DOMINATES SHANGHAI
TO TAKE
CHAMPIONSHIP
LEAD

10 October 2007

GruppeM Racing’s Tim Sugden took a lights-to-flag victory in last week's Round 10 of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, inching ahead of Japan’s Keita Sawa (right) with whom he was tied on the leaderboard after his win in the Round 9 earlier.

The Briton now has a six point margin at the top of the Class A classification, but with three races to go the title remains wide open with the top four drivers in the category still in the running.

In the earlier Round 9, Sugden had won ahead of SCC Racing China’s Christian Jones (below left) and reigning champion Team Jebsen's Darryl O’Young, the pole sitter.

O'Young (above right) returned to race in the series ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, but both races did not swing his way as he finished second in Round 9 and third in Round 10. He was clearly disappointed not to have clinched at least a win in Shanghai.

On a drying track, the field elected to race on slicks for Round 10. At the start, Sugden got away well with Marchy Lee, who started from the 2nd row, following him through and passing O’Young.

However, Sawa was almost immediately past Lee and up to 2nd, leaving the Hong Kong racer to take the chase to the Japanese as well as fend off the hard-charging O’Young and Jones.

Lee made a successful move on Sawa but a mistake saw him run off the track, rejoining behind O’Young who then spun while challenging the Japanese.

Although Lee was briefly promoted back to 3rd by the incident, Jones nipped past and it was the Australian’s turn to find a way by the Cref Motorsports ace (right).

Having applied some intense pressure, Jones got by to go 2nd and immediately set about putting some track between himself and Sawa.

As Sawa was defending, O’Young was able to catch the chasing pack and was soon on Lee’s tail, making his move with just four laps to go. O’Young continued his charge, getting by Sawa to go 3rd.

To add to the excitement, the heavens opened and suddenly the field was faced with little grip while pushing to the max. Sawa was a casualty, spinning and losing a place on the final lap.

Boylan (left), who was relieved his mechanics had discovered the problem which had plagued him all weekend, also spun. The action continued right to the chequered flag with Geoff Morgan and Sunseeker Asia’s Alain Lee of Hong Kong dicing it out for 8th and 9th place.

Team Vertu’s Nigel Albon made a superb comeback having started from the back of the grid as he ploughed his way through to finish 5th.

[View Results & Standings]

The Porsche Carrera Cup Asia next moves to Zhuhai International Circuit for the penultimate meeting of the 2007 season on November 3 and 4. Then the final race of the season scheduled for the Macau Grand Prix on 17 - 18 November.