Rei and Wong Steal Teams Title with SGP Win

Fabian Rei and Ryota Wong claimed victory in Sunday’s Super GP at the High Speed Ring, and the resulting thirty points with their victory sealed the Teams Championship for the Gerald Pereria-Pan Asia Alliance.

After starting seventh, the part would slowly start to climb into the top five throughout the three hour endurance race before a major shift at the front of the field put them right in the fight for the overall victory. Teammate to Rei and Wong, Owen Carvill tried to pass the lapped car of Lorenzo Mancini on the exit of turn four, clipped the barrier and spun. Directly behind Carvill was 2017 Drivers Co-Champion Jordan McKenna who ran into the stopped Lister Storm GT, knocking out both the leader and second place runners from the race at half distance. This would propel the other Gerald Pereria Lister, the lead Scuderia Vittore Ferrari of Denis van Walwijk and Lorenzo Crescenzi and the Minarae Ferrari of Nathan Scott and Heizo Takekawa straight into the fight for the victory overall.

Van Walwijk would lead from Scott and Rei after the final sequence of pit stops cycled out with the pair of Ferraris pitting sooner in the cycle than the factory Lister squad. Rei would have it all to do in the last forty-five minutes of the race, but would quickly dispatch the Independent class winner and storm by the South African at turn one with twenty minutes to go and never looked back. Van Walwijk would keep up with Rei but the traffic by the end did not help the chasing Ferrari, securing thirty points for the factory Lister pair. The points would be just enough to secure the Teams Championship for the GP racing squad, with the top three being separated by three points, with Union Saver Developments finishing second by virtue of Karl Lichter Shultz and Alphonse Riberio scoring four points at High Speed Ring, putting them one point ahead of Scuderia Vittore, even with their forty point haul from the three hour race with the sister car finishing fourth overall.

Finishing behind the top four would be the part time Commonwealth Corvette of Darren Older Jr. and Ito Shidehara, finishing off a highly successful part-time campaign, scoring thirty two points through their five races in the series. Behind them was the highest finishing SGP one off runner in the Baasch Auto Sport Lister Storm, with R.T Solvalou reserve Chris Winter doing the heavy lifting for the German team in their debut. Winter and co-driver Olivia Geiszler were the only SGP one off entry to score points, the next closest was the FAR Horizon Viper finishing one lap off the pace.

After the three hour race, only eleven cars finished on the lead lap; the only car missing out on points would be the lead Solvalou Lamborghini of Stefan Kuntz and Aurelien Moll, finishing the year with seventy points to their name. A trio of manufacture trophy teams finished ahead of them in the bottom half of the top ten, with a Pagani Zonda, Maserati and the other Union Saver Corvette all earning points. The last finisher in the top ten was the Scuderia Belgio Ferrari, rounding out their year with eleven points in the drivers championship.

The pair of Ricardo Llosa and Jordan McKenna scored four more points than they did in their successful championship campaign last year, with that taking into account their non-finish this year at High Speed Ring. They required the 30 points that comes with a victory to reach the mark of 114 points, but on the heels of two victories in a row the title was out of reach for the chasing pack behind, giving them their second championship in a row in the GT-R WC with their involvement next season to defend their crown currently in doubt.

Race Results – After 153 Laps

Fastest Lap – Car 1 (Union Saver Corvette – Llosa/McKenna) – 1:05.048

Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race – Chris Winter and Olivia Geiszler: Showed up with a unknown team and showed that they were here to more than just make up the numbers.

Reject of The Race – Jordan McKenna: They should have at least 140 points to their name, but it wasn’t to be since someone wasn’t looking ahead to see the accident happening.