Aston Martin Asia Cup: Highly charged races see a change of leader

The 7th and 8th rounds of the Aston Martin Asia Cup proved to be highly charged affairs when the double header event supported the Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race at Malaysia.

Racing on the full GP circuit in hot conditions, the battle was set up in qualifying when Concord Motorsport’s Mark Williamson (Australia) took pole just ahead of Championship leader Dilantha Malagamuwa (Sri Lanka, Dilango Racing). With Mark coming to Malaysia just behind Dilantha in the points, the gauntlet was thrown! Making a welcome return to the field, Singapore’s Mok Weng Sun took an impressive 3rd on the grid.

Both the weekend’s AMAC races were held on Saturday (8 August) and in an exciting twist to proceedings the second race of the day would be a night race; a first for the Aston Martin Asia Cup.

In Race One, Mark used his pole position to good effect and was pursued into the first corner by Dilantha, Mok and French newcomer to the series, Alain Li. Sadly for Alain a clash with Hong Kong’s Eric Cheung saw him retire from the race just one lap in.

As the battle between Mark and Dilantha raged at the head of the field, it was equally as fierce further into the pack with Mok and Malaysia’s Tunku Hammam fighting for the third place spot on the podium. Elsewhere there was the age old battle of England versus with Scotland with Ryan Marsden and Stewart Seatter having a close tussle throughout.

As the end approached, Dilantha made a move for the lead at turn 14, his and Mark’s car making contact and it looked as if both may be eliminated but both managed to keep going. And whilst Dilantha held on until the chequered flag, a 10 second penalty imposed by the stewards for the move at turn 14 saw him relegated to 2nd behind Mark, with Tunku grabbing 3rd position. The night race looked set to light up the sky!

At the start of Race Two Dilantha got the jump to take the lead from Mark who fought hard to win back the spot, eventually doing so with a brave move into turn 5 which saw the cars kiss once more. The train behind featured a nose to tail battle between Mok, Tunku and Alain, who were being kept in check by Ryan and Stewart.

History was about to repeat itself out front with Dilantha making a move into turn 14 but this time the contact made was to see Mark’s rear suspension damaged and he fell back in proceedings, eventually nursing the car home to 5th place.

Whilst Dilantha took the chequered flag, Mark’s protest to the stewards was upheld and Dilantha was disqualified from the results. This moved Tunku into 1st place, in his home race, with Mok and Alain in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Dilantha has lodged an appeal and the adjudication will be made shortly. However, as the results stand at the moment Mark takes the Championship lead by just 1 point from Dilantha as the series heads to one of its most exciting dates of the season – round 9, in support of the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix on 25-27th September.