CRAFT RACING AR KEEPS GT ASIA CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD AFTER FUJI

Company press release.

(Hong Kong, 16.07.2013) Craft Racing AMR entered 2 Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3's this past weekend in Round 5 & 6 of the GT Asia Championship, the #007 for Frank Yu (HK) and Stefan Muecke (DR), and the #5 for Samson Chan (HK) and Darryl O'Young (HK). In a hard fought race weekend the Craft Racing AMR drivers Stefan Muecke and Frank Yu kept the GT Asia drivers championship lead after a fourth place and podium finish in the two rounds, combined with a strong performance for the #5 car finishing in 5th place in round 6 helping the team maintain its 3rd position in the overall team standings.

It was a weekend of ups and downs for the team as several incidents cost Craft Racing from taking victory at Fuji Speedway, despite being quickest in both free practice sessions and taking pole position for race 1.

The #007 Vantage GT3 took an early lead in race 1 as AMR Works Driver Stefan Mucke opened up a gap to the chasing Clearwater McLaren before handing the car over to Hong Kong's Frank Yu. It was a perfect performance by the Craft Racing pilot as after 50 minutes of racing, Yu crossed the line in P1 with a 0.292 second gap to second. However, the celebrations were only short lived as the team was later handed a 30 second penalty for a pit lane infringement during the driver change dropping the pair down to P4 overall.

The #5 Vantage GT3 had strong pace starting from P4 on the grid, but contact between Samson Chan and an Audi saw their hopes for a podium dashed as the contact gave their car a puncture. They later crossed the line in a disappointing 12th place overall but their spirit remained high for race 2 due to the Aston Martins strong pace during the race.

In Race 2, Frank Yu and Samson Chan started the 2 cars for the team. They both drove strong opening stints and following a short safety car period, came into the pits for the compulsory pit stops in P4 and P6. After the driver and tire changes had finished, Craft Racing lost some time to their rivals, which saw Stefan Muecke leave the pit in P3 and Darryl O'Young in P9 behind the challenging Audi's.

Muecke and O'Young both displayed the speed of the Vantage GT3's as they posted extremely quick lap times during their 30 minute stints to close the gap to the leading Audi's. However, the gap proved to be too big as they ran out of time in the race despite Muecke make a late challenge to the Audi's with 2 laps remaining in the race. With some slight contact on the final laps, Muecke finished in P3 right behind the two Audi's, with O'Young overtaking several cars to move the #5 car from P9 up to P5.

With both championship contenders finishing behind the #007 Aston Martin, Frank Yu and Stefan Muecke extended their lead in the drivers standings, and with the the help of the points scored by the #5 car, Craft Racing AMR closed the gap to the leaders in the team championship.

Stefan Muecke commented on his round 6 performance. 'We changed tyres, that was our strategy. It was close and I think we lost a little bit of time there and because of that we stopped a little bit longer than the Audi. The gap was actually quite big. I tried everything to catch up, managed that and it was also nice to see the battle in front of me. I was also hoping that they would make some mistake and actually they did, going offline twice. So I was really able to catch them but we ran out of time.' Stefan added 'I was behind Alex Yoong (former F1 driver) in the last lap, he made a mistake down at the hairpin and went a bit wide, so I tried to get a nose in but he came back so I braked a little harder but I still gave him a little 'kiss'. I'm sorry about that Alex. It was a good fight at the end and this time we were third.'

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Darryl O'Young commented. 'Despite the results, Samson and I really enjoyed driving in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 this weekend. The team prepared a very good car and this was proven by the tremendous pace we had in the two races. Unfortunately we lost out on a few areas such as the pit stop, so it was a shame as we had a genuine shot at the victory in race two. However, this only motivates us more for the future races as I have a lot of confidence in Craft Racing to overcome the troubles we had to this weekend and come out in top at the next race.

The GT Asia Championship now takes a two month break as the cars are shipped from Japan to the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia, where the teams will continue their fight for the crown in the 11 round championship.