Craft-Bamboo Racing third after six-hours of the Sepang 12-Hour

It is the halfway mark at the Sepang 12-Hour Endurance and Craft-Bamboo Racing is currently in third place with Frank Yu (HKG) behind the wheel. It has been back and forth throughout the 6 hours so far, but the Clearwater Ferrari’s have jumped ahead after some luck with the safety cars right before the half way point of the race.

Craft-Bamboo Racing started the 12-hour race at noon with Warren Luff (AUS) at the wheel of the Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3. The team lined up on the front row in second place for the rolling start.

Luff managed a good start and was quickly on a steady but quick pace at the front with only one car ahead throughout his one hour stint. Midway through lap 21, car #26 had a spin, parking the car in a dangerous position, calling out the Safety Car.

It was a timely call as Luff was almost ready for his pit-stop and team engineer, Steve Ferrell, made a quick call to bring Luff in a few laps early to benefit from the SC period. The crew worked brilliantly to perform a perfect stop allowing Yu to bring the car out in fourth.

By the end of the first pit-stop sessions, Yu picked up the lead and maintained the position for a few laps before the #1 Ferrari of Clearwater Racing found a way past to reclaim his lead. Towards the end of his stint, Yu was overtaken by car #12 leaving him in third before the driver change.

The team once again executed a perfect pit-stop for Stefan Mücke (DEU) to take over from Yu. The German driver maintained a steady mid 2 minutes 8 second a lap stint and after the stops by the two Clearwater cars, Mücke gained one position and began to close up to the lead car. After 4 hours of racing, only 4 seconds split the #007 Craft-Bamboo Aston and the #1 Clearwater Ferrari.

An hour later, Luff once again took the wheel and continued his strong pace during the session, which had the second safety car period. Mücke then took the next stint leaving Yu to finish the 6^th hour for the team.

A major turning point came just ahead of the sixth hour of the race, as an untimely safety car was deployed minutes before the Clearwater Ferrari’s were due to stop. This gave both the #1 and #12 Ferrari’s their pitstops under full course yellow which allowed them to take a 1 lap lead over the #007 Aston Martin of Craft-Bamboo Racing.

Craft-Bamboo Racing is currently running in third, completing its 160^th lap at the six hour mark.

Driver Quotes:

Warren Luff (AUS) – “The car is good, we are settling in to an endurance race sort of speed and the Ferrari’s are very fast in the beginning but it is still a long way to go. Obviously we are conserving fuel and brakes. Its going to be a long night so we are just trying to look after the car and stay out of trouble.”

Frank Yu (HKG) - “We did a perfect call with the safety car in the first stint, so we gained about a minute just on that. Unfortunately on my third lap there was a Honda that blew its engine and left a lot of oil in turn nine and I had a little off there, losing about ten seconds. But all in all, it was a good stint, consistent and I brought the car back in one piece in P3.”

Stefan Mücke (DEU) - “We are still fighting for the lead, looks pretty close so far, a few safety car periods and it was very hot outside. Track conditions is not easy, it is very greasy because the temperatures is just so hot. You just have to save your tyres a little bit for that one hour stint to make the best out of it. So far no mistakes and everyone has been doing a good job, everything is fine but still a long time to go”.

The Sepang 12-Hour Endurance will end as the clock strikes 12 at midnight.

Craft-Bamboo Racing