OAK Racing wins 3 Hours of Fuji

The Asian trio of Ho-Pin Tung, David Cheng and Keiko Ihara took victory at Fuji Speedway in Japan at the second round of the Asian Le Mans Series, the 3 Hours of Fuji. The race proved a bit tougher than expected for the drivers of the #1 OAK Morgan-Judd P2, but, the squad delivered when it counted.

Under sunny skies, Japanese driver Ihara got the team off to a good start in Fuji, taking the lead from the #27 Eurasia ORECA-Nissan that stalled on the grid and lost two laps. She delivered consistent laps of around 1:38, holding onto first place until, 40 minutes into the race, she had to pit to fix a broken hood and front splitter after she lost control and went straight into the tire barriers. After quick repairs, she rejoined two laps down from their rivals.

One hour in, Ihara handed over to China's Cheng, whose goal was to bring the car back up the field. Halfway through his stint, he managed to overtake the #27 for the first time, bringing the gap down to one lap. During his stint, Cheung managed to set lap times that were consistently a second or two faster than Pu Jun Jin's in the Eurasia car and slowly continued to close the gap.

After nearly two hours, David Cheng handed the #1 OAK Racing Team Total Morgan-Judd over to countryman Ho-Pin Tung for the final stint. John Hartshorne was in the Eurasia ORECA and was still in the lead, but with lap times almost 10 seconds slower than Ho-Pin Tung's, it was only a matter of time before Ho-Pin caught up. Fifteen minutes into his stint, Ho-Pin Tung took the lead and pulled away to victory, even with understeer from worn tires.

"Because of Keiko's trouble with the car, we had to change our strategy because the tires were damaged as well in that crash," explained Ho-Pin Tung. "We had to change tires after Keiko's stint, so the tires had to be triple-stinted; we did three quarters of the race with one set of tires, as David used the same set in his stint as well.

"For me, it was basically to try and bring the car home at a consistent pace, which I managed to do, I think. The car wasn't in a perfect state to drive due to the accident and having to manage on one set of tires, but I think the team made a good turnaround and shows that you should never give up."

In the CN class, Denis Lian from Team Avelo Formula's #21 Wolf GB08 car started aggressively and led in the early part of the race. But Craft-Bamboo Racing which had qualified first, came on strong through Samson Chan who managed to take the lead in the later stage of the first stint. Craft's second driver Kevin TSE'S then kept his team in P1 and once he handed over to star driver Mathias Beche on lap 54, the result was never in doubt and Craft-Bamboo romped home to the win

In the GT category, Team AAI's #91 BMW Z4, which started second on the grid, took command at the start as Jun San Chen led through the first stint before handing over to Carlo van Dam. However, Takamitsu Matsui, who who took over from Yu Lam in the Team AAI #90 Mercedes SLS AMG, chased down van Dam to take the lead in the second stint. The battle between the #90 and #91 remained close until the Merc suffered some undisclosed mechanical issues, handing victory to the BMW.

In GT-AM class, the #82 Lamborghini Gallardo from The Emperor Racing did not make it to the grid, which left the team's #11 car to take an undisputed win.

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