Craft-Bamboo Racing Ruled Out of FIA GT World Cup Thanks to Contact from Competitors

Craft-Bamboo Racing has been ruled out of the FIA GT World Cup’s main race in Macau after Darryl O’Young suffered race ending contact just after the race restart on lap ten. It was another crushing blow for the team, further compounded by O’Young’s strong position of P5, which had the potential for the Hong Kong driver to end the race with a strong result.

O’Young began the final race of the weekend from P6 under the safety car due to the wet conditions but was soon racing under a green flag from lap three. O’Young did well to defend his position from those behind, setting a good pace in the #991 VLT Porsche and using every inch of the circuit to keep his competitors at bay. The Hong Kong driver resisted the pressure and the many overtaking challenges that came with it over the coming laps, showing excellent defensive capabilities in the process before a safety car period began on lap six.

When the race restarted on lap ten, O’Young instantly came under attack from Daniel Juncadella but the Macau expert firmly held his line into Lisboa and kept the Mercedes at bay. Unfortunately, the aggressive moves from behind continued as the Audi of Nico Muller charged up the rear of O’Young, hitting him from behind and spinning the #991 VLT Porsche into the barriers. Another safety car was called out in response and O’Young was able to get the Porsche back to the pits but the damage sustained was far too great to be repaired and he was forced to retire.

Quotes

Richard Coleman, CEO of Craft-Bamboo Racing

“Tough way to finish today, Darryl drove very cleanly under the difficult conditions and was comfortably in P5. He was defending well from the Mercedes before being punted off in an amateur way by the Audi. It is a disappointing end to a tough weekend but that’s Macau.”

Darryl O’Young, #991 VLT Porsche

“Just a disaster. The car was struggling with tyre temperatures but was coming good as the race reached the mid-point. The safety car was called out and we lost all the temperature in the tyres. On the restart the tyres were cold, but the guys behind were over aggressive and they forced themselves through. They hit me from behind and spun me around and caused a lot of damage to the car and put me out of the race. It was disappointing because the car was fast and we were doing well but the safety car made it difficult for us. I am just really disappointed with the race.”