FFF Racing by ACM took a step forward this weekend as the Blancpain GT Series Asia met for the penultimate round of the championship at Shanghai International Circuit. The Chinese-based team secured its first Am victory of the season, while the team headed the overall field for the first time.
Alberto Di Folco and Aidan Read teamed up again in the #1 Huracan GT3 as a silver-silver pairing, while Junhan Zhu and Yue Lin competed in the #2 GT3 in the Am-Am category.
The first round of qualifying saw Read behind the wheel of the Pro car, complete a run of five laps to place him seventh on the grid. The start of the race took place in damp conditions with Read making a great start on wet-weather tyres to move third by the first corner and seconds later into the race lead at turn six.
However, an early safety car effectively ruined the chance of a top finish. As the field bunched up once again and with the track drying rapidly, Read’s tyres degraded quickly and he, unfortunately, dropped down the order. Di Folco took over following the stop at the end of lap 11, bringing the #1 Lamborghini home in 11th place overall, seventh in the silver class.
Di Folco’s qualifying run for the second race saw him record the eighth best time in the silver class, leaving him somewhat disappointed to be 16th on the grid overall. The race proved to be more positive however with the duo battling on to a strong seventh overall, fifth in class and recording the best result for Lamborghini in the field.
Over in the sister #2 entry, it proved to be a very competitive weekend. The first race brought a fantastic podium position, while the second event was even better as Junhan Zhu and Yue Lin battled very tricky conditions to record a sensational Am victory; the first of the season. The result means that Zhu and Lin are third in the championship standings, with it all to play for at the final round.
Sean FU SONGYANG, FFF Racing Team Owner, said "It was a tough couple of races for us here with the #1 car, but in the end we got a good result for the team. The first race saw us take a bit of a gamble on strategy. We chose rain tyres and that gave us the advantage at the start. We started to pull out a gap but then the safety car came out that that meant we could not build the gap we would have expected. The track then dried out… too quickly for us.
“The second race was very good though. We started P16 and ended P7, the first Lamborghini home and an amazing performance from both drivers, so we are going forward weekend after weekend!"